


And So Bind the Chains of Fate

by hmmaster



Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: Crossover, Multi, Shinigami!Naruto, Tatsuki Gets Shinobi Powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-12-21
Updated: 2014-07-20
Packaged: 2017-12-08 03:53:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 286,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/756748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmmaster/pseuds/hmmaster
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For as long as Naruto had been aware, district three of West Rukongai was all he knew. A chance encounter and events begin to unfold, putting him on a path to his destiny. Will he unlock the secrets of his former self, or will he suffer the endless boredom with no memory of the person he was? Will he protect the people he cares for, or will he allow the unjust to succeed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rukongai Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

Sunlight streamed through the window of the small cabin, caressing the boy's face in its warm embrace. The air was swelteringly hot, almost oppressively so. He brushed the sweaty blonde bangs from his face, not quite sure why he did not want to get up at all.

Lately, he had been having a bout with laziness and overall boredom. He was so bored that he did not want to do something to counteract the laziness, like some kind of vicious cycle. He wondered for a long moment if he had become the laziest thing in existence.

"How troublesome," he muttered under his breath, a flashbulb memory going off in his head. He wanted so badly to remember what that meant, because he was certain it meant something. It had to.

But like the countless other times he had tried to remember something about his past life, he could not. Would not. He could not remember anything about where he grew up, where he was born. He could not remember his parents or his closest friends. He knew nothing about how he died or why, he just knew that he had died and come to Rukongai, to live for the rest of eternity.

That was where the boredom came in. Would he be like this forever, bored and unable to do anything exciting? He had lived in Hokutan, district three of West Rukongai, for as long as he could remember. For all he knew, he was not even sure that he had existed before he found himself here.

He sat up and took a deep breath, sighing as he exhaled. He pulled himself from the small cot and headed toward the cupboard. Yet again, he frowned when he realized that he would have to eat rice and a simple piece of bread.

As he prepared his meals, he let his mind wander to his to-do list for the day.

_One: go to work. Two: work. Three: leave from work. Four: eat. Five: sleep. Six: repeat._

Very rarely did the life he was living deviate from that schedule. No wonder he was constantly bored.

The number of marks on the cupboard door caught his attention, his miniature calendar of sorts. "Oh! Today is payday!" he realized aloud, smiling now. He could finally afford something other than pasty dry rice and stale bread. He figured that he would stock up on noodles from the shop to last him a few days of ramen, to celebrate having money before he returned to the endless doldrums of boredom.

He knew it probably would not be endless, when he stopped to consider it. Most souls, when they go to the Soul Society, do not age or go hungry or become sick. He was not sure what made him different, but he had to eat and he had aged only ever so slightly, slow enough that he knew it was not "normal" aging. At some point, somewhere, he knew he would die from old age or sickness or something, but then what happened?  _What happens when a soul dies?_

He guessed that he was probably fourteen or fifteen by now, based on his height and body shape. He had a lean, compact body that had receded slightly due to his meager eating. He kept his hair trimmed and comfortably messy, but his eyes had changed since he first managed to look into his reflection. They were more dull, more  _lifeless._  When he noticed that change, he realized that he was probably driving himself insane.

He ate his small helpings, leaving enough for probably two more meals before he would need to buy more bread and rice. He sat in the quiet, alone and relatively happy. It was too silent, other than the small sounds of nature outside his window and the sounds of his chewing.

He knew it was about time to leave, so he placed his bowl in the sink space. He walked to the other side of the room and threw on a gray tunic, before heading out the front door of the small cabin. He locked the door, although he was not quite sure why. Hardly anyone ever strayed far from town, and that was almost two miles away, at the base of the mountain. Not very many traveled through Hokutan as it was, but when they did, they stayed in town. He was not worried about thieves or bandits, but he could not stop himself from locking the door.

As he strode at a regular pace, he wished that he could move a heck of a lot faster down the mountain. He liked his seclusion fairly well, but sometimes, he wanted to just take up his boss on his offer to move into the inn itself. It would save him a lot of trouble, but at the same time cut him off from the nature that he liked so much. He enjoyed living alone, had always enjoyed it for as long as he could remember. And he was an outdoors type of person, so his situation gave him the best of both worlds.

But there were times when he was seriously tired of wandering down the mountain and climbing back up the mountain, despite his good stamina. It happened day in and day out, again and again.

Hokutan was a mountain town with several tall buildings arranged around a single, convoluted street, and another row or two of smaller buildings behind them. It was not very rich, but it was not exactly poor either. Crime was not common, but not rare either.

The people here were busy, always working or shopping or gossiping or dating. The town elder was an older woman named Kaori, and she was tough as nails. She often ruled with an iron-clad resolve and tried not to deviate from her decisions and her experience.

He crossed the main street and found the inn. They did not get a lot of visitors, but the boy felt like he had a good, steady job and that he was relatively good at it. It was not hard work and it did not give him that excited feeling that he so desperately sought from the afterlife, but it was something necessary. He had had to learn to put up with it.

The inn was relatively large and doubled as a bar of sorts, but the bar attracted a lot more attention than the actual rooms above. That was where he worked most, oddly enough for someone who appeared to be so young, but he had a feeling that he would be working on cleaning or rearranging today. He waved at some of the other workers, who smiled as he walked in.

"Ah! Naruto!" the man who owned the building said, crossing the lobby to bow as he entered. He slipped off his sandals at the door and stepped into the main lobby.

"Tadashi, how are you doing today? Sorry I'm late, I was having some trouble getting up today."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Running out of excuses? You need to break that habit of being a few minutes late, Naruto. It's not befitting of someone so young."

"Hey, I'm not young!" Naruto said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "I'll try better next time, okay?"

Tadashi looked at him suspiciously for a moment, before he smiled and clapped the boy on the back. "All right, I believe you. You were not too late anyway, so do not worry too much. Today, you're going to start going through the rooms on each floor above and cleaning each empty room from top to bottom."

He tried to put on a brave face, but cleaning was not his favorite way to spend his time. "Will do, Tadashi. Thank you!"

Tadashi nodded and left Naruto to get himself situated. He found the cleaning supplies in the supply closet and headed to the second floor, which was probably all he could get done in one day as is. He headed into the first unoccupied room and got to work.

It took almost two and a half hours to finish the first two rooms to Tadashi-level standards. He smiled as he realized there were only four more rooms on the second floor, and that one of them was occupied. So he was almost half-way done for today's share of the work. He headed downstairs for a quick bite to eat.

As he entered the bar area, he scouted out the patrons. It was a little bit busier than normal for this time of day, and a few of the regulars were there. But his eyes widened when he saw him.

Daichi Tsubasa, Kaori's "appointed" grandson. Daichi was a nasty piece of work, a truly annoying, spoiled brat who deserved to rot in prison for some of the things he had said to other people. He did not care what he had to do, he would get his way with any type of manipulation imaginable. There were rumors that he was one of the "bad seeds" in Hokutan that brought in crime and illegal activity. It was a strange, ironic twist of fate that he was the adopted grandson of the town elder.

Naruto could not stand him and had no idea why a guy like him could find himself in heaven instead of hell. Nonetheless, Daichi had made it to the Soul Society and was being a general nuisance to everyone.

Daichi was sitting at the bar with a few of his friends, and they were all laughing and cutting up. But Naruto was not focused on them. He was focused on the brunette girl, looking to be a few years older than Naruto, sitting strangely close to Daichi. She did not look very familiar and there was nothing that particularly stood out about her, other than her kind eyes and dark bangs that ringed her face. But the nervous, almost frightened look in her face scared Naruto.

"Hey, Daichi, who's the lady with you?"

The girl locked eyes with him, giving him a pleading look. Now he really did want to know what the hell was going on with Daichi and this girl.

"None of your business, hermit kid," Daichi said with a grimace, laughing and looking positively snide.

"Who are you calling a kid?" Naruto countered, anger showing across his face. "What are you doing with this girl anyway?"

" _Doing?_ " asked Daichi, his friends laughing at his tone, the tone that was making Naruto sick to his stomach. The seedy guy touched the girl's shoulder, and she visibly tensed. "I don't suppose I've done anything yet, but I can't say that won't happen tonight." He and his friends chuckled at the comment, but Naruto could tell that this girl probably would not like his plans for later.

The blond looked at her and offered a hand. "C'mon, let's get you away from these guys." She gulped audibly and stared hesitantly at the hand, but Daichi was not going to let this go.

"No, I don't think she will be going with you. She's going to come back with us and give us a good time." The girl looked positively terrified at the statement.

"She's not going anywhere with you, Daichi. Who do you think you are?" Naruto was positively livid, his body temperature getting higher and higher. He clenched his fist with rage. These thugs were not about to harm this girl.

"Much better than you!" Daichi exclaimed back.

Naruto did not know what came over him, but he immediately lunged at the older kid, surprising even Daichi. Naruto grabbed the thug's shoulders with both arms and yanked him toward the ground. Daichi landed on his back with an impressively loud thud. In that brief moment, Naruto's eyes bugged out at the newly-created crack in the floor, just from his throw.

But he did not have time to question it, because the thug retaliated quickly, giving him a quick underhanded jab to the stomach. Naruto's body convulsed as he lost his breath, his mind trying to comprehend what was happening. He did not let that punch stop him, because he shoved forward with all of his weight and tackled Daichi to the floor again.

They rolled around quite a few times, slinging fists and shoving back again and again, all within the span of a few seconds. The entire bar was probably watching by that point, and both Daichi and Naruto were trading blows back and forth, seemingly evenly matched. Daichi's friends did not intervene, thankfully for Naruto, but the side of him that liked to fight wanted them all to try.

Naruto flipped on top of Daichi one last time and pinned the boy's shoulders with his knees. Immediately, he began to pummel the hell out of Daichi's face. Naruto wanted each punch to leave a fist-shaped bruise. The  _thud_  of the thug's head pounding against the floor was music to the blonde's ears.

"Naruto, what are you doing?!" Tadashi shouted, immediately reaching to pull Naruto off of Daichi's body. Naruto nearly pushed his boss away, before he realized that he would have been shoving his boss. Tadashi yanked Naruto away from his opponent, who struggled to get up as his friends ran to help him.

Naruto gave Daichi a threatening look. The annoying brat wiped blood from his jaw and shouted, "You better watch out, hermit kid! I'll get you back!" And with that, the kid and his friends dashed out of the inn, leaving the girl behind. Everyone else in the bar just slowly went back to their business, save for a few strange looks to the blonde employee.

Tadashi had the demanding look in his eyes. "What the hell was that?"

Naruto gulped, knowing that it was going to be extremely hard to explain. "Daichi and his friends were going to hurt her, Tadashi. I couldn't let that happen!"

The manager of the inn did not seem convinced, but he motioned for Naruto and the girl to join him in the stockroom, away from prying ears. "My name is Tadashi, and this is Naruto. What's your name?" he asked, as he turned to the girl in question.

The brunette hesitated for a moment, still very frightened by what could have happened to her. "It's Momo Hinamori, sir."

"What happened to you, Momo? How did you even get with that slug of a bastard?" asked Naruto, still angry by the possibilities.

The girl swallowed, before gesturing to the west with her hand. "I'm from Junrinan. Daichi and a few of his friends ran into me there, in the main town. I was jumped late last night, and no matter how much I struggled, there was nothing that I could do to escape them." Her voice quivered with emotion. "With so many of them, I was too scared to try to run away, and even if I could, they would have caught me."

"They basically kidnapped you?" Tadashi asked, his brow furrowing.

"I'm going to kill him," Naruto said through clenched teeth.

"You'll do no such thing," Tadashi said. "Think about his grandmother, Naruto. You'll be in deep already, but if you were to do something else in this situation, I don't want to know the hell that Kaori could unleash against you." He paused to let Naruto think for a moment and then looked at Momo. "I'll bet you're wanting to get back home, huh?"

Momo nodded longingly, homesick and ready to put this whole nightmare away. "Yes, I definitely do."

"Well, if you would, could I offer you a meal or a bed to stay tonight? I know you must have people back in district one who miss you, but considering the circumstances, I think it might be better for you to wait and leave in the morning."

"Yeah, he's right," Naruto agreed. "If you were to leave now, you might run into those assholes again."

The girl thought for a long moment. "Well, Lil'Shiro is probably worried sick, but I  _am_  a bit hungry," Momo said sheepishly, and Naruto just laughed. The blonde dragged the girl over to the kitchen area of the bar and offered to cook her several kinds of ramen, each flavor he claimed to be his favorite.

Tadashi watched him interact with Momo and chuckled, wondering how long it had been since Naruto had spoken to a girl near his age. The old inn owner turned away from the two of them, heading back into the main bar area to hopefully do some damage control from the fight earlier.

When the ramen was finished, he and Momo sat down to eat. "You might be one of the first people I've met who eats because they are hungry," Naruto commented, slurping up a bite of noodles. "A lot of people eat because it's sociable, but you seem to just be really hungry."

She nodded. "Yeah. It's because I have a bit of reiryoku. Not much, but enough that I have to eat to survive. You should see Lil'Shiro, because he eats like a pig!"

"Reiryoku?" asked Naruto, confused. He'd heard the term before, but no one had clarified what it meant before. "What's that?"

"You don't know what spirit energy is, Naruto? How long have you been dead?"

He thought about it. How long had it been, exactly, since he died?

"You know, I... I don't even know," he explained, suddenly realizing that he had absolutely no clue. "But no, I really do not know what that is."

Momo swallowed another bite and took a sip of her milk. "Well, usually souls who come to Soul Society do not have much spirit energy. When they have a substantial amount, they age and have to eat and fight to survive, while a majority of souls are just content. If you have to eat, you probably have some reiryoku of your own." She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "As for what reiryoku actually is, you'd probably have to ask a shinigami. I've never really understood it myself."

He pondered her statement for a while. He had seen the black-clad, sword-carrying guards patrolling the streets of Hokutan on several occasions, but he'd never really ever spoken to one. Maybe he should speak to one now?

Something else she had said caught his attention. "Who's Lil'Shiro? That's a strange name."

The girl giggled. "Lil'Shiro is just a nickname I gave him. Toshiro's a little kid back in Junrinan, probably looks to be ten or eleven. We've been really good friends for years."

Naruto smiled. "I guess you want to get back to him so he won't worry too much, huh?"

She laughed. "Funny thing is that he's not the type of guy who would admit that. He'll probably say, 'I wasn't worried about you at all, Momo. I know you can take care of yourself.'" She looked up from her bowl of ramen, meeting Naruto's glance. "Thank you for what you did. I... don't know what I would do if... if you hadn't saved me." Momo looked like she might cry, but Naruto clapped her on the shoulder.

"It was no big deal. No harm done in the long run, right? The best part is that you're completely safe," the blue-eyed blonde said with a beaming grin. He finished off the bowl of ramen with a loud slurping, and it was enough to make both of them laugh. Hinamori still had half of her bowl left, but Naruto was done already.

"Maybe you'll be giving Lil'Shiro's appetite a run for its money!" Momo said with a small laugh.

As soon as Momo was finished, Naruto headed upstairs to show her to a room where she'd stay the night, before she would leave in the morning to go back to district one. It was only a few hours walk at a good solid pace, but even then, Naruto hated how slow he had to go when he went on delivery or pick-up runs for Tadashi. He may have enjoyed the scenery as he walked through the outdoors, but he wished that there was a quicker way.

When he closed the door for Momo to make herself comfortable, he nearly ran right into Tadashi. "Oh, hey, Tadashi. I just showed Momo her room for the night. Everything calmed down now?"

Naruto noticed how... gaunt that his boss looked right then, but he was not sure why. "Yeah. Everything has calmed down. I was talking with some people outside shortly after the fight, and they... well, let me just give you the message now. You'll need to head to Kaori's later tonight. Probably nine or ten tonight, due to other things going on. Kaori wishes to speak to you about what happened."

The boy's reassuring grin slowly faded when he realized what that could mean. "What do you think she'll say?"

"I don't know, Naruto. But if I were in her situation, I don't think I would be very lenient. After all, you provoking a fight in the middle of the bar was not exactly ideal employee behavior. To be honest, you're lucky I didn't fire you on the spot."

His eyes widened. Tadashi had never made comments like this, never anything this bad. Usually it was all in good fun, but now Naruto really had pissed him off. "But Momo was going to be ra-"

"I know," Tadashi said, cutting the boy off. "I know what was going to happen. I'm extremely glad that it did not happen. But that could have been handled in a better way that did not include getting into a fight in the middle of the bar. Got it? Good."

Naruto nodded nervously. "Yes, sir. I understand." He frowned and headed back to where he left the cleaning supplies, hoping to get the job done that he had intended to finish, all before the trouble with Daichi.

He was about an hour into cleaning one of the largest suites in the inn when there was a knock on the door. Had Tadashi booked this room since he started to clean?

"Coming," he shouted as he sat down the mop and headed to the door. He opened it and was surprised to see Momo. "Hey, how's the room?"

She smiled. "It's fine, thank you. Would you like some help? I could help you finish."

Naruto was going to decline, but the expression on her face made him want to reconsider. "Okay. I don't see why not. I helped you earlier, so I suppose this is you paying me back. You don't have to, though, if you don't want to."

She shook her head. "No, I do want to! I don't have much better to do, and I really do want to help out."

He smiled. "In that case, come on. I cannot stand cleaning, so with you here, maybe it won't be so boring and annoying."

"Happy to oblige," she said with a chuckle, heading into the room to help him.

Naruto was correct. Cleaning was much better with Momo around, as it gave him something to focus on besides the fact that he was cleaning. He was not too sure what Tadashi would think about allowing her to take over some of the work, but he would explain that to his boss later, if the man asked. He just wanted to enjoy this girl's presence, as she was very pleasant to work with. Maybe if he talked to Tadashi, he might could get her a job here in the inn, even though it's in Hokutan.

They shared stories of their adventures in the afterlife. Hinamori telling Naruto all about Jidanbou, the giant who guards the Western Gate into the Seireitei. Naruto shared many stories about some good-natured pranks he pulled on some of the patrons in the bar, like the time he spiked someone's tea with sake just to see what would happen. Both seemed to really enjoy each other's company.

"How would you feel about working here long time?" asked Naruto, curious and a bit hopeful. "I know it's not home, and Toshiro and his grandmother may not like it. But I thought I might offer, you know?"

She frowned as she considered it. Naruto immediately started to berate himself for even suggesting it, because it seemed selfish and misguided.

"Well, the truth is, Naruto, I would miss home far too much to think about staying here. It's not that I wouldn't miss you when I return, because you seem like a kind, funny person. I just don't think I could stay."

He put up a smile to hide his slight disappointment. He knew it was probably a rotten idea, because they barely knew each other anyway. But after protecting her, something seemed to awaken in Naruto, a resolve to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Spirit power or not, Momo did not strike him as someone who could take care of herself if something were to happen.

"It's okay," he said, grinning. "No big deal. I guess I just...," he stopped for a moment, breathing in and out, "I haven't exactly had many friends in my time here, since I live alone up on the mountain. That's how I like it most of the time, but I guess I get lonely some of the time. There aren't many others around my age, and I guess it's hard to get close to people who are younger or older."

Momo nodded, understanding where he was coming from. "Lil'Shiro looks like he's five or six years younger than I do, but we practically grew up together because we were neighbors. He and his grandmother are some of the only people that I'm close to. I can relate to that feeling." With that, they moved on to more pleasant topics, making each other laugh with more storytelling.

"Well you seem to have a lot of stories about Rukongai, but do you have any stories about your past life, Momo?" the boy asked, curious if she remembered anything about where she came from.

Momo shook her head. "No, I... I really don't. Lil'Shiro doesn't either, but his grandmother does. Do you, Naruto?"

The boy shook his head regretfully. "No, I wish I did though. I wish I remembered where I was from and what happened to me when I died." The girl nodded, wishing for the same thing.

"Why do you think we don't remember?" he asked. "Me, you, and Toshiro? Is it because we have reiryoku?"

Hinamori shrugged. "I don't know, but that's the best guess I've come up with. Seems like a pretty great disadvantage, if you ask me."

Naruto and Momo kept up the cleaning for the next few hours, until around eight o'clock that night. They left to eat and enjoyed a meal together while Tadashi watched, before it was time for Naruto to go and meet with the town elder, Kaori.

Momo had kept quiet all during dinner, and there was obviously something on her mind. "Naruto, I'm sorry that you're in this mess because of me." She was sullen and depressed, her head down and seemingly unable to rise.

He smiled sympathetically and said, "No way, Momo. It's not your fault, believe it! It's Daichi's fault, him and his loser lackeys."

She seemed to perk up, but she was still sad. Tadashi put his hand on her shoulder. "Naruto and Daichi have never gotten along before this, and it's been a long time coming. Daichi should never have attempted what he was going to do. Naruto should have attempted to save you without fighting, like finding one of the shinigami on patrol and reporting it. But do not think for a minute that you had any part in the blame."

Hinamori smiled sadly, thinking over his words. "Thank you, sir."

"You're absolutely welcome," Tadashi said. "Naruto, you'd better hurry to the compound. If you don't get there soon, whatever punishment you get could be more severe."

Naruto nodded, standing up from the table. He adjusted his tunic and tied his obi, before bowing slightly to both of them. "See you when I get back."

Tadashi and Momo bowed back to him. "Remember my advice from earlier, Naruto!"

The blonde waved back his acknowledgement as he left the room, leaving Tadashi and Momo alone. The owner of the inn stood and walked out of the room into the main bar, beckoning Momo to follow. "Tell me what you make of this, Miss Hinamori."

She nodded and followed him. He pointed out the obvious crack in the wooden floor, about three inches wide and five feet long. She remembered that that was where Naruto had shoved Daichi, and her eyes widened. She explained that detail to Tadashi, who could only ponder for a moment.

"So Naruto did that with just brute strength?" asked the boss, cursing under his breath as he thought about how expensive it might be to fix or replace. "Broke the solid wood like it was nothing?"

Momo was just as amazed as he was. It was interesting to her that Naruto had so much spiritual power locked inside that he could literally do that much damage, because it had nothing to do with muscle mass. Naruto was by no means scrawny, but he was not built like a brick wall.

"Has he ever showed anything like this before?" asked Momo, entertaining the possibility that it could have been a coincidence.

Tadashi looked away in thought before raising a finger to make a point. "Well, a few years back, I dismissed it. But Naruto may have been the one to snap the entire bar counter in half, because I remember him being angry at something that day." He showed her the wooden counter replacement. "I was able to replace it with an identical one for pretty cheap, but if Naruto has been breaking these things so easily, what does that mean, Miss Hinamori?"

She explained what she knew about reiatsu and reiryoku, thinking that if Naruto had never heard of it, Tadashi probably had not either. If she did not live so close to the Seireitei, she probably would not know that much about it either.

"So Naruto has some powers of his own?" asked Tadashi.

"Yeah, I think so," she explained.

"That could be very dangerous," he muttered, not sure what he thought about this development. Naruto was not the type to let something like this go over his head, but... but he had a temper problem. "With Naruto's tendency to get overexcited, couldn't these powers be a bad thing?"

"I'm not sure if they'd be bad, but I guess they could be," she said. "Back in district one, I've heard that souls with some reiryoku go on to become shinigami, through the Shin'o Academy."

Tadashi pondered that for a moment. "You have to eat as well, don't you, Miss Hinamori? Have you ever experienced any kind of special abilities like Naruto?"

"Not me, no," Momo replied. "But one of my friends from back home, he has this really cold presence. I don't think he notices, and I've never brought it up. But he sometimes makes the room colder without even trying. Is that weird?"

"Weird?" Tadashi asked. "Kind of. Hard to comprehend all this shinigami, spiritual power business."

Momo laughed. "I agree with you there."

"Have you ever considered becoming a shinigami yourself? Or your friend Toshiro?"

Hinamori had to admit that the idea sounded great, but she did not think she could ever be good at it. "Um, no. I don't think that would be... the right fit for me. And Toshiro is blissfully unaware that he even has abilities, if that's even what they are. He's just a kid who doesn't like responsibility too much, whether he denies it or not."

Tadashi just smiled in confirmation. "Well, if that's what you think, that's fine, but don't doubt yourself either. You could turn out to be very capable if you decided to do it." He picked up a clipboard and began running through an inventory list. "Would you like to help me out a little while we wait for Naruto to come back? I've got some things to before we close in a couple of hours, and I need to give him his pay."

Momo just nodded, her mind filled with images of strong battles and swords and tough training. "Sure. I'd love to."

* * *

The town elder compound, for as long as Naruto had ever known, had been inhabited by members of Kaori's family. Daichi had died and had been assigned into Kaori's household by sheer luck, but most of the people who live there were direct blood relatives of Kaori herself.

The building was the grandest building in all of Hokutan, located in the direct middle of the town and surrounded completely by a twelve-foot-high wall. It really did scream of wealth, the most expensive building that Naruto had ever seen.

The place had patrol guards, regular souls armed with various weapons like katana or bows or spears. They were all dressed in heavy, almost samurai-like armor, each more ornate than the last. Trees lined the inside of the courtyard, Naruto noticed as soon as the guards let him in. One of them escorted Naruto through the yard and up to the flight of stairs leading to the gate.

"This is Naruto, the boy Kaori needed to see," the escort muttered to the main guard, a stumpy man who looked to be a little too old to be standing guard at a complex like this.

The man simply nodded, probably having heard all about the fight that had taken place. Naruto had been nervous before, but he had never been more nervous than this exact moment, right before the door opened to the main building. As it anciently creaked open, he had to fight the urge not to cringe.

He was ushered inside, just as before. They rounded three hallways before the entrance to Kaori's office appeared. Everything in this place screamed of money, and Naruto could not help but marvel at how Hokutan could ever have this much revenue. He knew that the districts closest to the Seireitei were generally richer, but this was obscene. The luxuries of being in charge, he figured.

The escort did not say a word as he opened the door to the office, introduced Naruto to the village elder, and then left before Naruto even had time to say, "What?"

Kaori was a short, lumpy old woman with a bit of a stomach, but her expensive red and white robes made up for it. She had a sour look on her face, a sure sign that he was in deep trouble.

"Naruto," Kaori began, gesturing for him to sit across the desk from her. "So I've heard an interesting and appalling story about you from my grandson, Daichi."

Remembering Tadashi's warning, he remained silent before he said something that could make him worse off in the end.

Kaori looked him in the eye before clearing her throat. "He claims that you came up to him in Tadashi's Inn, interrupted his good time, and shoved him to the ground. You then proceeded to beat him until Tadashi could pull you off of my poor grandson. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" The woman spat the last question, disgusted at the implications.

He had to fight not to comment, not to directly argue with everything she was saying. "Is that all he said? Did he explain to you why I did this?"

Kaori did not budge, and Naruto started to realize that he may not win this argument. "No, I'm afraid that was all he said. Is there something more?"

Naruto started to rehash his side of the story for the second time that day, including Momo's end of the story as well. Strangely enough, Kaori began to smile half-way through the story, which unnerved him completely.

"What's so funny? I'm telling you the truth!"

The old woman grew upset that Naruto had the audacity to yell at her, and Tadashi's words to be respectful echoed in his mind.

"Quite frankly, Naruto, I simply do not believe your far-fetched tales. I've heard enough of your pranks from many concerned citizens to know that I cannot take what you say with a grain of salt. It's fairly obvious that you are using these falsities to malign the character of the village elder's grandson. Did you think this would be funny, Naruto? Did you think this would bring you enjoyment, trying to make Daichi out to be some kind of common criminal? If that's the case, you're even more broken that I originally imagined."

Naruto was speechless, the office completely silent. Kaori stood from her chair and looked out of the window, watching the crescent moon up above.

"This is just not true! Those pranks were just jokes that never harmed anyone, and Daichi and his friends were going to hurt poor Momo! I could not stand idly by and let her get raped!" Naruto was getting so angry that he gripped the chestnut-colored desk, his knuckles turning white.

Kaori did not turn his gaze. "There's a flaw in your lie, Naruto, a flaw that ensures that I cannot believe a bit of what you are saying." She turned to look at him, placing both of her palms flat on the desk and trying to look intimidating. "Daichi did not leave the compound last night. He was here all night, resting after a long day of chores. I had a few of my guards check up on him.

"What terrifies me more than anything, Naruto, is that you do not live in town. You live all alone, up on the mountain, away from social interaction," she explained. "And what makes matters worse is that boss of yours, Tadashi. He hardly leaves that inn to keep it barely running. It does not offer as much money as he claims, and he's often in debt. I worry that you have no positive relationships in this town, and it has probably affected your mental state."

"My mental state?"

Kaori nodded in confirmation. "Yes. You seem to not know where your lies begin and where the truths end." She walked around the desk and placed her hand on the back of his chair, kneeling down to meet him face to face. "Naruto, did you kidnap a girl from district one last night, hoping to blame it on Daichi?"

"What? No! Not at all!"

Kaori continued as though nothing had ever been said. "I had to admit I was a bit shocked when you mentioned this as part of your story, because Daichi made no mention of it. How noble of him to want to protect you. He was the one who questioned you about this girl, wasn't he? He caught on to your plans, and you fought him to silence him, didn't you? He must have been so scared of your revenge that he did not mention the real reason to me, in hopes that you would go easy on him."

The blonde was just shocked. "Lady Kaori, you are  _way_  off-base here! Have you lost touch with reality? Daichi was caught sneaking in illicit drugs earlier this year, but did you punish him? No."

"Lies!" Kaori slammed the arm rest on Naruto's chair, shocking him enough that he reflexively gripped the desk harder. He looked down at his fingers, but he couldn't find them. It looked as though his fingers had submerged into the wood of the desk, so he hurriedly pulled them out in shock, hoping Kaori was distracted enough not to notice. Sure enough, there were five finger-sized indents in the wood, like he had stuck his fingers into a vat of butter.

"Gather what belongings you have in town and just leave. You're banished from Hokutan. Exiled. Whichever term you prefer. Don't ever expect to be able to come back again, and don't think you'll have a home up on the mountain left to come back to."

"Banished? Seriously?" he asked incredulously. "There's no punishment for Daichi at all?"

"He was being brave, something that  _you_  could use a bit more nowadays. I expect you to be gone from district three by first light tomorrow."

* * *

Naruto was livid, but he had to try to keep his cool. He was not going to be able to return to Tadashi or see the mountain ever again. He headed into the inn one last time and was thankful that it was not closed yet. His shifts usually did not go into nighttime, but now was a different story.

The place was nearly empty, and it made him wonder about the validity of Kaori's statement that Tadashi was always in debt. They seemed busy enough most of the time, but were they really?

He headed behind the counter and into the backroom, hoping to find Tadashi and Momo, and maybe even some supplies to bring along. And food. He had no clue where he was going to go, but he would not be able to return here. That was the only certainty that he had.

"Naruto? You're back!" Momo said, smiling and scanning his face for any idea of what happened. She seemed to slow down when she noticed his not-so-happy face. "What happened?"

He frowned even more, all efforts to pack lost. He sat down at the table, head in his hands and running through his hair. "That bitch banished me. Made me an exile, like some kind of common criminal."

"What?" asked Momo, her face quivering in surprise. "I don't understand. What did she say?"

He turned to her for a moment, studying her face. Then he explained the whole story, with as much detail as possible. He grew angrier and angrier with every single sentence.

Momo was in outrage, and she grabbed Naruto's hand to yank him up and onto his feet. "Come on, Naruto, let's go prove her wrong! I'm your evidence, my story will match up to yours! They'll have to believe you."

The blonde shook his head. "No, she won't change her mind. All the important people in this town have their heads so far up Daichi's asses that they would never believe me. She made me out to be the psycho loner rapist, Momo, and no matter how much I beg and plead, it won't change her opinion of me. Her sentencing has always been final."

Momo huffed, crossing her arms in anger. "I won't give up, Naruto, and you should not give up either. Come with me."

He reluctantly followed her into the hallway, toward Tadashi's office. Tadashi was surprised to see them both, and after explaining the whole story, Momo asked, "Surely there's something we can do."

Tadashi wiped the tear from the corner of his eye, surprising Naruto. He was not exactly an emotional man, so to see that side of him was strange. "Oh, Naruto... I'm afraid, Miss Hinamori, that there's nothing that we can do. Kaori really is a stubborn-old-bat." He walked over to Naruto and wrapped the blonde in a one-armed hug. "Let's get you something packed, kiddo."

Naruto solemnly followed him, leaving Momo there with a complete lack of understanding. She began to cry as she walked behind them, trying to keep a brave face but feeling like this was all her fault.

"Momo, there's nothing to feel sorry about," Naruto said. "What's done is done."

He really did believe that philosophy, that you couldn't change the past. He believed that you could change your future, if you just persisted long enough to see a change. It was one of the many factors of why he never gave up.

Was he giving up though? Was Momo right? Had he accepted his fate as being banished? Was he angry about this, angry enough to try to change it?

The boy sighed.

"I just don't get it, Naruto," Hinamori began. "How can you not blame me? I was the one who got you into this mess in the first place. Daichi... Daichi and his friends. I should have had the power to fight them off. What the heck kind of use is it to have spiritual power if you can't use it to defend yourself?"

Naruto looked at her curiously. "It's not like you've been trained on how to use it though, Momo, if that's even how it works. Stop worrying about it! I'll be fine!"

"No, you won't," she argued, wiping at her eyes. "Where will you go? What will you do?" Before Naruto could even answer, Momo suddenly brightened up. "I know! You could come and live with Toshiro and me, in Junrinan! Oh, it would be great! I could introduce you to Jidanbou, I think you'd get a kick out of him! You'd really like Lil'Shiro's grandmother, and there's a great ram-!"

Naruto shook his head, although he gave it a lot of thought. "No, that's just what Hokutan would expect. They know you came from there, and they may stir up trouble trying to find me there. It's too obvious."

Tadashi, who had kept relatively quiet as he sorted through some light food to pack for both Naruto and Hinamori, finally turned to face them. "Maybe not, Naruto. If they expected you to expect them to find you there, then you could hide there after all. And besides, I don't think they'll be out for blood or something, Naruto. Kaori is not likely to waste the manpower on it, and the shinigami have better things to do than that." He paused, putting a bag of rice into both bags. "You could easily go with Momo, Naruto. All it takes is the first step, and it sure would take some of the worrying off of me, if I knew Miss Hinamori was there to take care of you. And you would be close enough that I could visit, as long as things calmed down on this side."

"Of course I would take care of you!" she said, not exactly sure why that statement made her blush. Naruto did not seem to take notice of it though. "And he's right, Naruto! They aren't that far away, so your former boss could visit you!"

The blue-eyed soul thought for a long moment, curious if this could work. It definitely was better than not having a plan at all, but drifters moved in and out of districts all the time. He wouldn't attract much attention if he went by himself, and he knew how to live off the land for the most part. But Momo and he had been good to each other, and she seemed genuinely excited at the possibility.

He took a deep breath in and out, letting it calm him down. He batted away the stray thought of why souls even needed to breathe, before finally agreeing. "Fine, I'll do it. Where would I stay while I'm there?"

Momo thought for a moment before saying, "With Toshiro's grandmother, of course. You and Lil'Shiro are not that different in age, so you'd get along, I think. And I live really close by, so it'll work out just fine."

"You sure she wouldn't mind?"

Momo shook her head, her brunette bangs swaying as she did. "No, she loves guests, and you have a great personality. She wouldn't mind at all."

"Then it's settled then!" Tadashi said, trying to be chipper but his expression said otherwise. Naruto could tell when he was upset.

They spent the next half hour going through some other supplies for two packs, just in case they needed them between Hokutan and Junrinan. When Tadashi handed them both the bags, they thanked him together.

"All right, so you guys are going to stay here tonight and then head out in the morning, just before dawn, right?" asked Tadashi for the umpteenth time.

They both nodded. "Yes, sir," Naruto said, smiling.

The boss smiled back and hugged both of them quickly, before handing Naruto the last thing on his mind. A bag of coins, the "paycheck."

"No, I won't need it, Tadashi. What if the money doesn't work?"

The older man scoffed. "Naruto, it's only a few hours away. And Kan are acceptable everywhere."

"If you say so," the blonde muttered, taking the bag and putting it in his back pocket.

"I'm off to bed. I'm planning on sleeping in tomorrow, so don't wake me as you head out." He winked, before adding, "I'm not sure if this will work out for you one hundred percent, Naruto, but please be careful. Both of you."

They both nodded and then did a small bow to him. He bowed back, and with that, the goodbye was over. Tadashi left them in the backroom in order to close the bar. Naruto wanted to really thank him properly, to say a good long goodbye. But he reminded himself that Tadashi might could visit him someday.

* * *

Naruto awoke to the sound of the alarm going off next to him, about an hour before dawn. He stretched and sighed, opening his eyes wider before getting up. He walked into the bathroom, hoping to get his face washed, do something with his hair.

He stared at his reflection in the mirror, his body looking haggard and tired. Dark circles stretched under his eyes, and his face looked dry and flaky. He reached up with water and splashed his strange, whisker-like cheek marks before taking in another deep breath. He looked at his bare torso and abdomen, wondering why it felt so... empty when he looked at his belly button. Like something was missing, almost.

He washed his hair quickly, throwing on his clothes from yesterday. He wished that he could go back to his place and pack a bit of clothes, or at least change, but this would have to do.

He hurried downstairs, meeting Momo in the kitchen area of the bar. She was already dressed and looked a lot better than he did this morning, but that was not saying much. They ate a quick bite to eat, mostly talking over their plans and more about Ame, Toshiro's grandmother.

"I guess we'd better go," Momo said, standing and grabbing her pack off of the floor. "I wish I could thank Tadashi properly, but I'm sure I'll get to do so eventually."

Naruto nodded. "Of course. Let's get moving."

The two of them left the inn, Naruto locking the door behind him and placing his key on the mat. He did so without much hesitation, but he still felt oddly sad about that.

He walked on with Momo in the relative dark, gray-light just before dawn. He did not run from the only place he had ever really known. He walked out comfortably, Momo at his side. He passed the last building on the left, turned and looked at the convoluted street, almost barren and devoid of people.

"You okay?" asked the girl at his side.

He nodded. "Yeah. I think I'll be okay. Oddly enough, this is kind of... exciting. Refreshing. Like a new start. Maybe it won't get boring so fast this time around."

Hinamori laughed. "Let's hope not."

Naruto and Momo walked past the limits of the district, heading east. He imagined that if he climbed high enough, he would be able to see the walls of Seireitei on the horizon.


	2. Unstable Determination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

"Come on, Toshiro, give it back!"

"And tell me, idiot, why I should?"

"Because it's mine!"

"Who said?"

"Ame made it for me as a gift!"

"And I'm supposed to care  _because..."_

"Shut up, Toshiro! It wouldn't even look good with your stupid hair!"

"Oh, look at  _Naruto,_  the fashion  _expert!"_

Naruto huffed, wanting to just punch the daylights out of the little brat for taking the bandanna that Ame had worked so hard to make. He stopped for a moment, trying to give Toshiro a false sense of security, before lunging at the kid again.

Toshiro laughed, pushing himself to his feet and leaping into the air, just in time so that Naruto smacked into the ground, a cloud of dust billowing from his body. The brat chuckled again, before running toward the town at full speed, hoping that Naruto would follow.

The blonde boy spat and brushed himself off, before dashing in the direction Toshiro had went. He heard Ame weakly call out for them to be careful, but Naruto was past that point. He'd do just about anything to get that damn bandanna back.

He spotted Toshiro, just as the silver-haired boy clumsily knocked into a merchant, causing a domino effect that left a lot of people covered in fruit and trinkets. Naruto sped up and leaped over the mess, inciting an angry yell from the merchant and the crowd.

_Don't scream at me! Toshiro's the one who did it,_  Naruto thought, a angry gleam in his eye.  _I'll get that kid if it's the last thing I do._

He sped off again, passing through one of the side streets and momentarily passing Momo as he did. The girl whipped her head around, calling out to him, but he ignored her. Maybe she'd follow him, help him catch that brat.

Naruto stopped long enough to catch his breath, looking up at the edge of town and the beginning of the woods surrounding it. Somewhere past that was district two and district three, and he got an unnecessary moment of nostalgia. He pushed that down, hurrying into the woods after the silver-haired demon that plagued his existence.

He pushed past the trees, touching one of the branches as he passed with his fingers. He didn't notice, but the branch seemed to bend at his touch.

He broke through a clearing, seeing a flash of silver ahead. It was enough of a distraction that he didn't notice the very steep bank decline into the lake below, and his entire body lost touch with the ground. He tumbled down the side of the bank painfully, causing him to cry out in pain. Before he knew it, he was lying face-down in the water, his thoughts filled with revenge.

He stood from the shallow depths, clothes covered in mud and leaves and water. His rage and embarrassment had reached a new high.

"It's a good thing I took this from you," muttered a cool voice. "Because if I hadn't, you'd have gotten it all wet and dirty."

Naruto took a deep breath, a reprieve before he turned all of his attention on the bastard who did this to him. The silver-haired boy with bright blue-green eyes was holding the white and orange bandanna between his fingers, twirling it around his index finger. He was standing at the top of the bank, his expression smug and Naruto wanted to scream so hard that he could barely stand it.

"Hitsugaya, I'm going to kill you. That's all there is to it. Prepare to be-"

"Covered in mud? I believe you have that handled, don't you?"

Naruto was about to charge up the bank when he heard something rustling through the bushes. The two boys looked over to see Momo, who was positively confused at what was going on.

When she saw Naruto, her entire expression was filled with shock. "Are you all right? What happened?"

"Lil'Shiro over there stole the bandanna " he muttered angrily, brushing the mud off of his tunic and ignoring Toshiro's reminder that the nickname wasn't his name. "I'm fine, just cold and wet and angry."

And with that last word, Toshiro just could not hold it in any longer. He cackled into the sky, loud enough Naruto was certain that everyone in the Seireitei could hear him. Hinamori, trying to keep her composure, eventually caved and started to laugh as well, which naturally caused Naruto to realize the hilarity of the situation. His anger abated, he started to belly-laugh so hard that he nearly fell back into the muddy shallow water.

After a few moments of that, Toshiro calmly climbed down the bank, removing his sandals to join Naruto in the lake. He was kind enough to lay the bandanna on the limb of a tree, where it wouldn't be ruined.

Hinamori, noticing the two of them, began to undo her kimono.

"No! What are you doing?!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes bugging out of his head. He turned around, looked to the corner of his eye and saw that the silver-haired brat was still watching her. He waded over to him, still turned away from her, and plunged his head under the water. The blonde noticed how cold the other boy's skin felt, thinking that that was not exactly normal.

"It's no big deal, Narunaru," Hinamori replied, joining them in the lake. "I didn't want to get my clothes all yucky. See?"

Naruto peeked through his fingers to see that she still had her underwear on, and she was thoroughly submerged with only her head and shoulders sticking out. "Fine. But warn us next time, all right?" Momo just laughed.

Toshiro burst from the water, shouting for air. He then lunged at Naruto again, like some kind of silver, sloppy river monster, and the two of them wrestled and laughed.

For the next two hours, the three of them splashed and swam and got covered in mud, not a care in the world. Toshiro did not seem to notice that he was making the water colder around him, but Naruto did not care. They already knew that the silver-haired brat had a lot of reiryoku, even if he didn't admit it himself.

At the end of that, the three of them climbed out of the water and laid on a grassy hill overlooking the sparkling water. Momo tried to clean herself off in the shallow water, before joining them fully dressed. Naruto could only smile.

He loved being out here in nature, and if he had time, he liked to come out here and take a nap under the trees. Sometimes, one of the others came with him, but usually, it was just him.

"This is my favorite spot," he muttered from the base of the oak tree, his head resting on a root. He could see the breaks in the foliage, the way the sun broke through the leaves to give them a soft yellow glow. It made him feel like he was at home.

Toshiro was sitting up in the grass, watching the lake's push and pull creating small waves. He breathed in the air, not usually taking this much time to care about sitting outside. Outside was where the other kids in the district were, and they all treated him like dirt, like they were scared of him.

"This is nice," Momo muttered, running a dirty hand through her brunette bangs. She had climbed up a couple of branches and was lying perfectly balanced at a fork in a large branch. "I haven't done this in so long."

The three of them just waited and enjoyed the feeling for a long time. It was impossible not to enjoy it, even if you weren't a nature person. Peaceful, calm, and homey. Just like Naruto liked it.

"Ame is going to kill us when we get back, isn't she?" asked the silver-haired boy.

"Nah, just you," Naruto said, laughing. "You did cause this mud and stuff you know."

He smiled. "Maybe. But you did clumsily fall into the lake."

"Because I was chasing you."

"And? You still shouldn't have fallen into the lake."

Before it could turn into a much larger argument, Momo twisted towards Naruto and read his expression. "So, how would you say the last ten years have been?"

He thought about the decade. A decade since he was exiled from Hokutan. A decade since he was pleasantly accepted into Ame's home. About eight years since Toshiro finally warmed up to him, despite his cold exterior. About four years since the Shibas moved into town and started monthly fireworks shows; they were gone now, but the three of them had shared a lot of good memories under those light shows. Three years since he last saw Tadashi, who had come to visit them with news that Daichi had been arrested and charged with the rape of a different young girl; he hadn't told Hinamori about that, hoping to keep from bringing that up.

"It's been... really good," he said with a smile. He felt completely relaxed with not a care in the world. "I wish Ame was in better health though. If she hadn't started getting sick, then this would have been perfect." He solemnly looked up at the clouds, tracing one of them that almost looked like a raccoon with his eyes.

Ame had been waning slowly, for no determinable reason. She was exhausted all the time, her bones looked frail and her skin was always pale. It bugged all three of them that they couldn't find a way to make her better, although sometimes Toshiro liked to pretend she wasn't sick.

Today was one of the those times. "Oh, she'll be all right, you guys. Stop worrying so much."

"You can't deny that she looked awful this morning, Toshiro. There are some days when she's fine, and others when she looks like a walking corpse." Naruto tried not to notice the irony of the fact they were dead.

The silver-haired boy sighed. "You guys are depressing."

Momo looked at him curiously. "We're not depressing, Lil'Shiro. You're such a stick in the mud sometimes that you don't notice what's happening around you." With the look on her face, Naruto wasn't sure if she was talking about Ame's illness or the latent reiryoku the boy had.

"Oh, Ame, stop with that talk about spirit stuff again," Toshiro muttered. "And stop calling me, Lil'Shiro, Bed-Wetter Momo."

Hinamori just shook her head in disbelief, before looking at the two of them. "I've been doing some thinking, you guys. I'm thinking that I may join the Academy."

Naruto's eyes widened. "The Academy? You want to become a shinigami? I thought you said you didn't even want to try because you didn't think you'd be good at it."

"Well, today is a day that brings back good memories, and I thought I might just decide to make some more," she said with a smile. "Let's all apply! We could all be in the same class and learn from the same teachers and be in the same squ-"

"No," Toshiro muttered. "Too much stuff to do. Not enough time to do it. I'm not interested."

"What is all this stuff that you have to do, Toshiro?" asked Momo. "Last time I checked, you don't exactly have much going on. I think it could be good for us."

Naruto gave it some thought again, as Toshiro huffed that conversation away. He'd actually been considering doing it himself for a while, in the future, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to do so now. But Hinamori's expression was enough to at least make him reconsider.

"I've heard it's difficult though, Momo. Dangerous even. What if one of us got hurt?"

She sighed. "We've all heard Jidanbou's war stories, Naruto. Most of them are made up anyway. He was never a member of a regular squad; he's always been one of the gatekeepers. It was like his family was bred for that exact thing, all giant and imposing."

"That doesn't mean it's not dangerous," argued Toshiro. "Naruto's right, for once. It could be too much for us to handle."

"The three of us? We're strong, capable people! We can handle anything they can throw at us!" Momo said, beating her chest like an ape for emphasis. Naruto had to laugh not to point out how hilarious that was.

The blonde thought for another moment before sighing. "I guess I'll think about it, but how would we get into the Academy? Actually, where  _is_  the Academy?"

"It's on the outskirts of the Seireitei, not too far from the wall on the north side. We have to pass a test though to get in, and there are these checkpoints all along the walls where they do tests."

"We'd have to pass a test?" asked Toshiro, "Just to get in?"

"I hate tests."

She scoffed. "You two are such party poopers. How do either of you know if you hate tests so much unless you remember tests from your past life."

"My hatred for tests is not bound to life or death. It will be forever lasting," said Toshiro, a serious and inexpressive frown stretched across his face.

Hinamori rolled her eyes. "You guys are impossible. I can't believe you don't want to do it."

When Naruto saw how upset Momo was, he finally collapsed. "Fine. I'll do it. When are we going to do it?"

"Soon," Momo said. "I'm not sure when, but the three of us will ask Jidanbou if he has any idea where the nearest testing station is or if we have to wait until a certain day."

"Three of us?" asked Toshiro, surprised and looking almost offended. "I'm not going to do this. If you two want to, go for it. I'm on my own here."

Hinamori looked like she would argue, but Naruto gave her a look. She sighed, but was still excited about the possibility. In a strange way, so was Naruto. He was excited, even if a little hesitant. It couldn't be all bad, right?

* * *

With Naruto's ten-year anniversary bandanna securely in place, which he wore as a headband, he headed to meet Jidanbou outside the gate. Hinamori was supposedly already there, as far as he knew. Toshiro stayed behind with Ame, taking care of her the best he could while his mind pondered his friends. Why would they commit themselves to this?

Getting to the gate from district one took almost no time at all, since most of Junrinan ran alongside the wall anyway. The walls to Seireitei were extremely tall, almost twice as large as Jidanbou was tall, and that was saying something. He caught sight of Momo standing outside the big western gate, called the White Way Gate.

Jidanbou was also there, outfitted with his two axes and the standard black robe of a shinigami. He was easily about eighteen feet tall, his axes a proportionally large size. Naruto would never, ever mess with him.

"Oi! Naruto!" the big goof bellowed. It was such a large and hearty sound. "How've you been?"

"Good, Jidanbou, how about you?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious. Momo gave him a smile as he approached, finally catching up with them.

"Doing just fine!" the man said, bulging his muscles in a way that made Naruto wonder if it was on purpose or by accident. "Momo said that you guys had a couple of questions to ask me."

Naruto nodded, but let Hinamori take the reins. "Well, we were wondering what the selection process was like. Is there a specific time or place where we have to do it?"

"Hmmm," the giant pondered, the hum creating enough vibration in Naruto's ears that he wondered if it was some kind of earthquake. "It's been nearly three hundred years since I've had to do any Academy business, but I suppose that it's still the same. A spiritual energy demonstration and a written exam." He stopped to consider it a moment. "I've let some potential students in recently, and they explained that the nearest testing center is located along the wall about an hour's walk to the north. It's not too far from here, and to get into Seireitei, you have to pass that exam and get the seal."

Momo smiled. "Oh, all right. Do you know if they are still accepting students right now, for the upcoming academic year next month? It's supposed to start in September, right?"

The giant nodded, his ax shaking behind his shoulder at the demonstration. "Yep. If you pass, you'll get a spot in one of two classes, one for advanced and one regular. If you fail, you won't be able to take it again until next June through August."

Momo nodded. "Okay, thank you for the information!"

"Yeah, you're awesome, Jidanbou. We'll take you out to dinner or bring you something good one day soon, all right?"

The giant seemed positively happy with that offer. "Don't you two forget now, you hear? And good luck with the exam!"

The two of them left, deciding to just go ahead to the testing center that was supposed to be an hour away. Momo was talking a mile a minute about how excited she was and how much she was looking forward to. She wanted something new to happen in her life, and quite frankly, Naruto could not blame her.

"I'm worried, Momo. I have never been very good at written tests."

The girl frowned. "Oh, hogwash. It's not that hard. You'll do just fine!"

Naruto did not feel like arguing, he just let Hinamori's positivity try to drown out his own negativity. She was excited enough for the both of them to do well, and he fully expected to do just that.

The testing station was barren of activity, but it was built directly into the wall that made up the great city's defenses. It looked a little bit barren, though like no one was there.

Momo dragged them up to the counter fast enough that the teller was so shocked to see newcomers that the strange glasses she was wearing were nearly knocked off. "Hi, ma'am, we'd like to take the exam!"

The teller looked over both of them for a moment before smiling. "I suppose that we can get you two situated soon. You're lucky because this is the last day of regular testing."

"Wow, we cut it close, didn't we?" asked Momo, a surprised look on her face. Naruto just laughed.

They filled out and signed quite a bit of paperwork and had to do a forced blood sample to get themselves into the system, before the teller could let them through to the testing site. When the clerk was done, she gestured to the door behind her.

"All right, the two of you will go through the double doors behind me. From there, you'll take a left until you see another hallway. Go down there and the first door on the right is where you need to go. Good luck!"

Naruto and Momo bowed to her, thanking her for her hospitality, before heading to the room she referenced. When they were certain they had found it, the two prospective students headed inside.

The room was like a large auditorium, but it was nearly devoid of activity. There were about three others sitting in the front row of the large auditorium and an older man, sitting on the edge of the stage. The chairs were like ones you would see in college, with a sliding panel used for a writing surface. Naruto had no clue where he knew that from, and it was actually physically disturbing him that he could not remember where he learned that.

"Oh, good!" the person on the stage said as they wandered in. "More future students. Come on up and get this packet and a pen."

They did just as he said, finding seats on the front row alongside the others. He gave them both a look and said, "At least one desk between the two of you, please." Naruto shifted over one seat, wondering how that would make a difference.

"All right. Who I am is not important, but the test you are about to take is."

Naruto grinned. "But sir, don't I deserve to know the name of the person who's about to kill me?" Momo reprimanded him with a look, but the instructor just laughed.

"A joker, huh?" the teacher asked, laughing. "That won't get you anywhere inside the walls of the Academy, so you'd better quit it now. No one inside is able to understand the beauty of humor like I can."

The blonde boy gave him a puzzled look before shrugging. The instructor went over a few rules first, most of which Naruto would have understood on his own. And then they were allowed to break the seal, open the booklet, and turn to the first page.

_Name the afterlife._  Naruto wondered why that first one was so simple, so he wrote out the obvious answer.  _The Soul Society._

_Who founded the Thirteen Court Guard Squads?_  The blonde cursed himself for not knowing this one. Had Jidanbou ever mentioned it to him? Oh!  _Yamagenryuki._  That  _had_  to be right.

_What are the three possible paths a graduating student can take?_ Naruto only knew one, and that was from the previous question. He wrote that down and continued to the next question, hoping for partial credit.

_If a zanpakutou can demonstrate one thousand kilojoules of power in its shikai state, typically, how many kilojoules can it produce in its bankai state? Use the following equation._

Naruto's eyes widened, not even able to read that equation. He skipped that one and looked through the rest of the test. Most of them were simply not possible to answer. He looked through the corner of his eye to see Momo writing answers down to almost every question, and it completely upset him that he was unable to do so. They should have studied more or something.

After an hour of mental torture, Naruto was saved when the buzzer finally went off. The exam proctor gave the blonde a knowing smirk, wondering if it had tortured the boy enough.

He collected the tests, setting them on the stage near the podium before opening his bag and presenting a tiny silver orb. It looked like it could have belonged on a pearl necklace, or maybe even as an earring, but he had never seen anything like it before.

"This is a miniature version of a reishuukaku core, developed by the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, which is also the answer to number twenty-nine," he muttered, eyeing Naruto again. "This is designed to draw out the reiatsu that you should possess, and if you have a good amount of control, you'll create a sphere of energy around your hands. Demonstrate good control, and you'll pass this portion."

He handed the orb to a girl on the front row first. She stood in front of the stage, before looking at the orb a moment. The girl smiled and simply concentrated for a short moment, a glowing orb of light generating around her palms. Naruto could feel the reiatsu pressing him into his seat, like some kind of oppressive feeling. The instructor nodded appreciatively, before passing the core to the next person.

Some seemed to pass and keep their orbs relatively stable, but others were unable to even do the simplest thing. Then it came to Momo.

Naruto wasn't sure if she would pass or not, because as far as he knew, she'd never learned to draw out spiritual pressure. Neither had Naruto, actually, so he was more than a little bit worried.

The girl concentrated for a long moment, holding the spherical object within her palms. Her eyes closed and for a brief moment, Naruto felt a strange sensation on his skin, like something was... pressing on it, warping it. He felt... odd, more odd than the others because this felt familiar. It felt... like an old friend.

And then, with only another moment, the orb began to glow and a transparent blue ball of light surrounded Momo's hands. Naruto's jaw dropped at the display, because he didn't think she could do it; she'd never mentioned  _how_  to do it. The blue sphere was not perfectly solid, a bit shaky in places, but the teacher nodded at the display. "Good going." He took the core from her and handed it to Naruto. "Your turn."

"I don't know how to do it!" he exclaimed, cursing himself. One of the other students laughed. Hinamori was about to remark how to help, but the instructor gave her a warning glance.

"Doesn't mean that you cannot try."

The blonde nodded. If he wanted to have any chance at passing, he was going to have to do it.

He focused on the ball within his fingers for a few seconds, before trying to shift his focus toward his inner self, whatever that meant. He inwardly shrugged, thinking that it sounded good either way and tried again. He tried to find anything, remember anything that could give him access to his powers, but nothing happened.

The instructor nodded, taking the orb away from him. Naruto was going to protest, but the man cut him off. "A soul with no spiritual pressure does not belong as a shinigami, young one."

"I have spiritual pressure!" He started listing off things that he had done that were not explainable, like making cracks in the floor or melting his fingers through a wooden desk.

"It's too late," the teacher said, before turning to address everyone. "If you would, could you step back into the clerk's office while I grade your performance? It should not take very long."

The prospective students nodded, following his orders. The blonde boy sat next to Naruto, his mind swimming with worry about failure. Momo was supposed to give him a reassuring glance, but she looked as worried as he was.

"Don't worry! It's not as bad as you think," Momo tried, but he shook his head.

"Yeah it is. Those other kids were all able to at least generate some sphere. I couldn't do any of that. I answered maybe five or six questions on that entire test, Momo. I failed it, I failed it hard." He was just about to stand up, ready to leave.

"Where're you going?" asked Hinamori.

"C'mon, there's no point in staying. I knew we shouldn't have done this."

"But Naruto, I think I passed!" Momo declared, confused and offended that he would just get up and make both of them leave.

The blonde got up and started walking toward the door. When he heard Hinamori try to follow, he waved her back. "Don't worry about me, Momo. Meet me back at the house, all right? After you get your results."

Momo nodded, still wondering what had gotten him so upset. "Um, all right."

And with that, he walked out of the room, heading back towards the town. Momo was utterly bewildered, not sure if she should follow him or stay. Eventually, she made up her mind and sat down, feeling conflicted all the while.

* * *

Naruto heard Ame cough loudly, breaking him from his slumber. He turned his head to see her lying next to Toshiro, her body shivering and her breath literally like ice. He sighed, walking over to her to cover her up with his blanket, before slipping out of the room.

It was almost dawn, and there was just enough light coming through the windows for him to see well enough. He read through the notes that he had forced himself to write after his fourth failed attempt at the exam. He'd been compiling them, editing them, changing them over the years so that he had a sort of cheat-sheet.

Momo had visited only a few days before, excited about her fifth year starting at the Academy in just under a month. The two of them were happy for her, but Naruto would have been more happy if he were with her. He'd failed that damn test three times now, having skipped a year, and the next time to take it was coming up. He hated tests, hated them with a passion but he wanted to join the Academy now more than ever. He'd been trying for far too long to get in that he just had to pass this time.

When he was done reading over some spirit energy calculations and equations, the steps to doing them memorized in his head, he stepped into the night air. He sat on the porch, feeling the air against his skin and hearing the calm sounds of morning.

He sat there and thought. Thought long and hard about how to call out spirit energy. He'd managed to do it a few times, getting progressively better and better the more he did it. It helped for him to try to picture a certain shape in his mind and only that shape, allowing him to push all other objects aside and connect with his spirit energy. It usually worked nowadays, but it wasn't a perfect system. Nor was it as potent as it could be, as Jidanbou had explained once. But it was all Naruto had at the moment.

Toshiro would be up soon, and Naruto pushed thoughts about the Academy away when he heard the boy rustling indoors. The sun was beginning to rise, and the silver-haired boy stepped out of the house and joined him. The boy had not gotten much taller in the almost fifteen years that he'd known him, but neither had Naruto. Momo, however, seemed to have aged last time she visited. He had no clue why that made sense.

"Hey, Toshiro," he muttered under his breath, putting the notes away once more.

"You know, you come out here every single morning to study," the silver-haired boy muttered. "Or at least most mornings. What do you hope to accomplish? Haven't you embarrassed yourself enough with that damned test?"

Naruto was taken aback. "Toshiro... why are you so upset?"

The boy sighed and nearly yelled out. "Geez, I'm not upset with you. I think it's great that you are studying for it. I don't think it's great that you're obsessing. It can't be that damn hard to control your spirit energy."

"Can't be that hard, huh?" asked Naruto, curious and upset now. "You try, smarty-pants. Channel your reiryoku into the air around you."

The boy accepted the challenge, his face snide. He closed his eyes and started to breathe deeply, before causing the air around him to burst with cold air. Some of it literally froze at the effort, falling around him in small flakes. Naruto could feel the potency of the display, feel his body react to the presence of his best friend.

"There," he said. "You happy?"

Naruto was in awe. "How did you do that!?"

"Me to know and for you to find out."

"Me to find out, huh?" asked the blonde, before suddenly tackling the other boy to the ground. The two of them laughed and laughed until Ame shouted out a weak muttering to stop and that they were giving her a headache.

"Sorry, Ame!" Toshiro called out under his breath. "We'll be more careful!"

The two of them settled down, sitting on the edge of the porch to relax. Naruto watched the other people pass them by, walking down the busy street of Junrinan and going about their business.

"So you think I'm obsessing, huh?"

The other boy nodded. "Yeah. Ever since Momo passed and you didn't, you go through these periods every year where you shut everyone else out to prepare, and then you've failed every time. Why do you think that is?"

Naruto considered it a moment, giving it some thought. "I don't know."

"I know why," the silver-haired boy proudly declared, before pointing to Naruto's forehead. "You're thinking too much. You have to learn when to let things go and when to obsess. I'm not telling you to give up, but let it slide a bit. It's not the end of the world. You've got plenty of time."

Toshiro was right. Naruto had been thinking too hard. His mistake the first time he went into that test was not preparing at all. His mistake going into the subsequent tests was preparing too much. It was like something clicked in Naruto's mind.

"So... what do you need me to do to help you?"

"Help me? You're going to help me pass?"

"Hey, don't act so surprised. I tried to help you two years ago, but you shut me out every time."

"You did?"

Toshiro nodded. "And you and Momo call me oblivious."

Naruto turned to the sky, feeling the sun shining on his face. "Okay. Tell me this. How did you learn how to channel your spirit energy?"

The boy considered it a moment. "Channel is probably not the right word, since I never really learned to control it. I just... learned how to call on it."

"How though?"

Toshiro sighed. "I'm getting there. You're too impatient. It's not that hard to figure out. I just listened to Jidanbou telling Momo about it years back, before she even took the test. You just imagine feeling very, very emotional, a feeling that can make your entire body tighten up, kinda like a spring. Then you just... imagine your mind letting the spring go, while still being upset. Don't let yourself hold back any longer."

The blonde tried to do as Toshiro asked, sitting on the porch and trying to call on a specific emotion. He tried to force himself to be angry, to let his entire body react to that anger. After a moment, Toshiro visibly reacted by flinching away from him.

"There," the silver-haired boy said with a slight smirk. "Was that really so hard?"

Naruto shook his head, his head swimming with excitement. He now had a sure-fire way to call on spirit energy. He did not relax, allowing the feeling to progress to such a degree that he did not notice the adverse effects it was having. The columns holding the porch up started to splinter, and several people who had been milling about near their house started to run faster, as far away from the two strange boys on the porch.

"Okay!" Toshiro yelled, breaking Naruto's reverie and the control over his reiatsu, calming the feeling immensely. "That's enough. You're going to snap the porch in half if you aren't careful."

"Oh. Right," he muttered sheepishly, surprised that he could do such a thing.

"I'm going to go to the market," Toshiro said, standing up. "You want to come?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'd rather head to the lake, clear my head. See you later."

Toshiro nodded and headed towards town, leaving Naruto there to think. The blonde got up, told Ame where he and Toshiro were going, and then headed toward the lake at a leisurely pace.

His mind was swimming with new information. Toshiro's trick to call on his reiryoku made perfect sense. He'd tried to do it before and had been able to, but it was difficult to do repeatedly. Now, here he was, able to push and pull on the power inside him. It was almost scary, in an exciting and inviting sort of way. If he could learn to control it, to keep it there and mold it to the shape of the sphere, then he'd pass the second portion of the exam.

Now if he could just concentrate on the first.

He arrived at the lake, immediately finding his favorite tree and sitting at the fork of two large roots, his head against the bark. He practiced calling on his spiritual pressure, the results very favorable. The waves seemed to move faster in his presence, the wind blow harder and more rapidly. The tree almost seemed inviting, so much so that he did not even notice that he had fallen asleep.

"Damn that insufferable woman!"

Naruto's eyes opened with a start, his vision still swimming from his dream of a red-haired woman. He looked up to see Toshiro standing only a few feet away. "What's wrong?"

Toshiro began a long spiel about going to a fruit stand, picking up a piece of fruit and getting treated horribly by the kiosk owner. "I turned around, running right into the chest of some blond woman wearing black robes and literally knocking me down. She tried to take up for me to the shopkeeper, but I ran off, too angry that the woman had knocked me down." He paused, upset. "Doesn't that just bother you?"

Naruto pondered it for a moment. "I don't understand why you're upset at her. You should be mad at the shopkeeper, if you ask me. She tried to help you. In fact, I think she might have been a shinigami."

Toshiro rolled his eyes. "There's no way that a woman like that could be a shinigami. She'd suffocate the first time she had to run with that damn chest of hers!"

Naruto just laughed, imagining it now. "You ready to go back? It's almost getting dark, and I'm sure Ame is worried sick about us."

Toshiro nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

The blonde-haired boy shook his head free of the cobwebs, something having awoken him in the middle of the night.

He looked over, shocked to see Toshiro completely and utterly bewildered, panting loudly. There was a brief moment when Naruto saw someone else, a blonde woman with a very large chest, but it was gone so fast that he wasn't even sure he saw what he saw. The younger boy was staring at Ame with a pained expression.

"You okay?"

Toshiro shook his head, before gesturing toward the door. Naruto got up and followed, and Toshiro looked just about everywhere outside for something. "She just... disappeared."

"Who disappeared? What's going on?"

Toshiro looked toward Naruto. "That shinigami woman from earlier. She... I woke up from one of my usual dreams, and she was there. She basically said that if I don't become a shinigami, my reiatsu would kill Ame."

"What?" Naruto asked with shock.

Toshiro explained the entire encounter with the mysterious woman, every detail. It suddenly made so much sense for the two of them: Ame was sick and getting skinnier because of Toshiro's latent spiritual pressure. It was... unsettling, to say the least.

"I can't believe I have been hurting her all this time," he said with a grimace, wanting to practically hurt himself for being so stupid. "I should have listened to you when you guys talked about this reiryoku that I supposedly have. I should have realized that the reiatsu would have harmed her."

Naruto shook his head. "It's not your fault, buddy, and no one blames you. I've probably done my fair share of damage to her, to be perfectly honest, and that bothers me too." He stopped, looking at the sky for a moment. "What are you going to do, Toshiro?"

"When d'you say those tests were held?" the boy, his expression one of determination.

Naruto smiled, all of this far too sudden, although he wasn't sure he should be happy about it. "Um, there's another one coming up today. I wasn't going to take this one, I was going to wait until next week so I could prepare a little more."

"Nope, you're coming with me to take the test later today," Toshiro said in the early morning moonlight. "You're going to pass, I'm going to pass, and Ame is going to be just fine."

Once that was decided, Naruto grinned. "Momo is going to be so happy."

"Yeah, yeah. I finally caved on all the spirit stuff. Get over it."

* * *

With Ame's blessing, Naruto and Toshiro headed to the testing site. By this point, the clerk running the front desk knew Naruto by name, but Toshiro still had to fill out a bunch of paperwork. The other boy was thankfully on file.

Once that was settled, the two of them followed the clerk's directions into the testing site, the same auditorium Naruto had seen quite a few times already. Inside, the instructor was still the same man, but the place was a bit more full this time, with a little over two dozen participants and three more instructors.

Naruto found a place to sit and Toshiro followed, not sure about what was going to happen, but he had heard Naruto explain it enough times that he knew what to expect. The instructors handed out the sealed testing packets to each of the participants, explained the rules in the same way as before, and then told them to begin.

Naruto read question after question. He answered question after question. There were several that he wasn't entirely positive about, like a question detailing the behind-the-scenes legal process to transfer from one division of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads to another. Or the question about the noble families that make up Central 46. But there were a majority of questions that Naruto knew without a doubt, and it was enough that he was feeling very, very good about this.

Toshiro was very quiet and seemed to pause a lot, making Naruto wonder what was going through his head. Toshiro had always been smart, scary smart really, so was this his method of thinking things through? Was he considering a bunch of answers or using his mind to decipher them? Naruto really had no clue, but he hoped that Toshiro would do well enough.

The time limit went off, and Naruto happily gave his testing booklet to one of the other instructors, who turned it in to the guy in charge. Toshiro and Naruto exchanged a look that was really not sure, but both felt relatively good about this.

The main instructor, whom Naruto had learned was Gengoro Ounabara over the years, gestured to the bag to start the next step of the exam. The exam proctors split the groups by rows and were each handed a reishuukaku core, the device to transmit spirit energy into a sphere.

Naruto always enjoyed watching this section of the exam, because it was interesting to guess if a certain person would do well or not based on their appearance. Some were able to generate huge spheres, others small ones, and some none at all. Last exam, Naruto had managed to create a sphere that immediately exploded in his face, so the tension was very high for him this year. One girl, her hair wrapped up in buns almost like a panda, generated a sphere of blue light that fluctuated for several seconds, making everyone worry that it would explode, before it finally stabilized; she seemed utterly relieved, thanking the instructor. Then it was Naruto's group's turn, and Toshiro was up first.

Naruto wanted to give him some last minute words of encouragement, but he knew it wasn't allowed. Toshiro stepped up to the plate on stage and was given the tiny, white-blue sphere that looked almost like a pearl. "All right, your turn, half-pint," Ounabara said, earning a glare from the younger kid.

Toshiro immediately closed his eyes and focused on the orb between his palms. Naruto noticed the air get considerably colder, as though a cool breeze was emanating from the silver-haired boy's very presence. Immediately, a glow was emitted from the core, growing larger and larger until it was covering an area almost all the way to Toshiro's elbows. Everyone there was shocked, especially Naruto. Was Toshiro really holding that much power?

"Well, a bit of a show-off, huh?" asked the main proctor, laughing as he touched the large, stable sphere and admired how solid it was. "Good job, kid, although it's a little cold." The sphere dissipated, and he grabbed the core from Toshiro and handed it to the next person.

There were three more people after him, and Naruto gave Toshiro a congratulatory thumbs-up. He passed that part of the exam beyond a shadow of a doubt, Naruto was sure.

"You again?" asked Ounabara when it finally turned to Naruto. "Haven't you given up already?"

Naruto shook his head. "I'll never give up. I'm going to pass this test one day, and that day is today."

The teacher smiled and handed him the core.

Naruto immediately thought of the moment when Kaori banished him from Hokutan, the anger he felt in that moment enough still, several years later, to cause him emotional distress. He felt the power start to grow from within, but it wasn't enough just yet. He thought of the moment when he fought Daichi, defending Momo from a possibly terrible situation. Finally, the orb began to glow and absorb his spiritual pressure, before expelling it in an orb of energy.

An extremely unstable orb of energy. It was nowhere near as large as Toshiro's, but it was shaking and vibrating more violently than the girl with the panda hairstyle. It made him think of how imbalanced the surface of a lake or a river was, and that imbalance was making him extremely scared. He did not want to repeat the year before, not going to stand for an explosion this time.

He tried to take his anger and console it with thoughts of excitement, things that made him happy. Things like Tadashi giving him the job he had held for so long, like the day he was moved into Ame's home. The orb began to solidify, turning from an unstable, flickering sphere into a stable, almost glass-like surface. It wasn't perfect and it did not last long, but it was enough for him. Naruto finally felt like he could have passed.

"Took you much too long, young Naruto," the instructor said with a smile. "Not perfect, but not bad. Not bad at all." He took the core and moved to the next person, but all Naruto could think about was his chances of passing. The silver-haired brat could only smirk.

* * *

The Academy was a tall, grand structure with a huge yard. It was completely closed off from other sections of the Seireitei, which Naruto wished he could have explored more than he did. Toshiro was standing next to him, already dressed in his standard Academy blue uniform. Naruto wished he could be in the advanced class with Toshiro, but all he could think about was the fact that he had passed at all. Naruto felt very nice in the crisp uniform, but he had a feeling that he would get very tired of it very quickly. He was more upset at the fact that he couldn't wear his headband, but he figured that it could wait.

"This place is massive," Toshiro said, humbled by the size. "Much bigger than any building back home."

Naruto had to nod. "Most definitely."

The yard was filled with students milling about, many with swords across their backs. The two boys wished that they had their own, because both felt like they stood out as first-years.

"Lil'Shiro! Narunaru!" yelled a voice. They both turned to its source, smiling as a very excited Momo Hinamori, dressed in her Academy red and carrying her sheathed blade, appeared from the top of the stairs. Both boys were extremely glad to see her, even though the nicknames were just a little annoying.

"Momo! How are you?" Naruto asked, as the girl hugged both of them hard around the neck.

"I'm doing just fine," the girl said. "I'm just ready for my last year of the Academy! Izuru, Renji and I have been waiting for far too long."

"Who are they?" asked Toshiro, but Momo waved them off.

"No worries, you'll meet them. Let me give you a tour, and then you'll have to head over to orientation!"

And with that, the three of them left to explore the place that would house them for the foreseeable future. Naruto was so excited that he could hardly wait.

Toshiro seemed to notice his expression. "You do realize this is a school, right? With tests and exams and homework?"

"Shut up, Toshiro, you're spoiling it."


	3. Rookies Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

Red hair was the only detail he could remember from the dream that had awakened him in the middle of the night. He tried to remember, tried very hard to make it all make sense, but nothing seemed to click.

He grimaced as he looked at the clock at his bedside, realizing that it was not too long until he needed to get up anyway. Classes started today, and Toshiro and Naruto's third roommate was supposed to arrive later in the morning.

He got up, turning off his alarm clock and looking at his sleeping friend in the other bed across the wall. He had fallen asleep with a book on his chest, a book about the theory of zanpakutou spirits. Naruto had a copy of his own and found it fascinating, if a little hard to read because the language was older, but Toshiro had lost himself in it. There was probably drool all over the page.

He quietly got dressed in his uniform, still enjoying how it felt to wear it. It felt good to be a part of something so... good. Toshiro kept reminding him that it was still going to be a school and that classes would likely be challenging, but Naruto was trying to look past that. He was trying to meet the challenge on his own, and Momo had offered to tutor both of them if they needed it. The blonde was confident that once he got the swing of things, he wouldn't need the tutoring, if he ever did at all.

In fact, he brought out the book about kidou, focusing on learning the theory as opposed to the actual incantations. That was some of Momo's advice, back from her first year. If they had a good background on the technicalities of a subject prior to class, they would more likely succeed in practice. He didn't want to overwhelm himself with trying to memorize the words to the spells he had never attempted to use, but he could find more use in memorizing the steps to using them.

He read up a little on hohou, or footwork, but that was easier when put into practice. It was difficult to follow on paper, much easier to follow when a teacher or instructor demonstrates it. He had tried a few of the steps outside the day he got the book, but both he and Toshiro had struggled. Hinamori had promptly demonstrated an advanced hohou move called shunpo, and Naruto had never been more amazed than the moment Hinamori practically teleported from one place to another almost fifty feet away. He realized that he would have to wait to learn hakuda and hohou on his own time.

Zanjutsu, however... Zanjustu was what he wanted to learn. He couldn't wait to get a sword, couldn't wait to learn how to use it, get his own zanpakutou and kick Hollow ass. He wondered if he had been any good with a sword in his past life, or if he even had any reason to use one in his past life. He was probably something lame like a restaurant worker or a garbage man.

There was a knock on the door, immediately causing Toshiro to groan and shove the pillow over his ears. Naruto chuckled, walking over to see who it was. Hinamori was likely already busy helping people check in, so he wondered if it was the other roommate.

The door opened, revealing a gangly teen who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen wearing the standard uniform and a bag over his shoulder. Naruto wondered why he wore his hair like that, with all of it tied in the back like some kind of spiky ponytail. The boy's expression was a tired one, and Naruto could already tell that he and Toshiro would get along.

"Good morning!" Naruto said, a bit of pep in his step. From the response, he knew that this kid was not used to someone as high-strung as Naruto. "Are you the third roommate?"

The boy nodded slightly. "Yeah. Just... tone it down a little, will ya?" He walked in and placed his bag on the last unoccupied desk, before starting to prepare his bed. "Silver-haired kid has the right idea."

"I'm not a kid," Toshiro muttered, slowly rising from the bed. The textbook fell off of his chest and landed on the floor, much to Toshiro's chagrin. Naruto grabbed it for him, placing it on the desk.

"Eh, don't let Toshiro bug you," Naruto began. "He's Toshiro Hitsugaya, and I'm Naruto."

The other boy pondered his statement a moment. "Naruto what?"

The blonde rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Just Naruto. I... I'm not sure what my last name is."

"Oh. Sorry," he said quickly. "I'm Shikamaru Nara, of North Rukongai Twenty-Eight."

"Cool. He and I are from Junrinan, West Rukongai One." Naruto started to explain their whole life story, but Toshiro cut him off.

"C'mon, Naruto, he doesn't want to hear all that. We'll have plenty of time to tell that later." And with that, Toshiro stood and began to change into his uniform.

"What about your life before?" asked Shikamaru, genuinely intrigued. "You started your story talking about Hokutan."

"Neither one of us remember our past lives," Toshiro explained.

Shikamaru frowned. "Oh. I was kind of hoping to be wrong, but it seems that anyone with a substantial amount of reiryoku does not remember anything before the Soul Society."

Naruto nodded, sadly. "I kind of figured that. But it sucks to realize it."

The other two nodded in agreement. "All right, I was hoping to try to get some sleep, but I don't think I have time now. You guys want to come to get breakfast, before class starts?" he paused, before saying, "Wait. Which class are you guys in, one or two?"

Naruto held up two fingers, and Toshiro said, "One."

"Oh, cool. I'm in two too." Naruto chuckled at the brown-haired boy's choice of words, but both of the others shot him a look that quieted him quickly.

* * *

After a quick breakfast and catching up, Naruto and Shikamaru split off from Toshiro and headed toward class. Shikamaru was hopelessly lost, but Momo had given Naruto explicit directions toward the lecture hall. He still remembered them, thankfully.

"You excited for class?" asked Naruto.

The other boy shook his head. "Not really. It's... not something I'm going to worry about."

"Confident?"

Nara nodded. "Yeah. I'm not too worried about the actual class work. It's the practical stuff I'm worried about."

Naruto laughed. "I'm the exact opposite. I'll have to study pretty hard to learn all that history and math, but I think I'll do really well when we actually get to do something."

Shikamaru smiled, just as they finally arrived at the lecture theater. They sat together somewhat in the back, and Naruto hurriedly gathered a notebook and his textbook to follow along. Shikamaru just sat, and Naruto was confused.

"You're not going to get out any paper or anything?"

The other boy shook his head, stretching in his seat. "Nah. We're not likely to cover anything too complicated today. I'll just sit and absorb."

The blonde shook his head, grinning. Toshiro and Shikamaru were practically the same person sometimes, Naruto could already tell.

The professor, a short squat woman named Keiko Takashi, was the main instructor for class two. She was going to oversee all of the instruction, including the zankensoki. The zankensoki were the four physical manifestations of a shinigami's training: hakuda, hohou, kidou, and zanjutsu. She went through a basic overview of the instruction during the first year, which was mostly basic knowledge every shinigami would need to know. Naruto couldn't wait to get to the fun stuff.

"So that's when and why the Spiritual Arts Academy was founded," Takashi said, explaining the origin of the two-thousand one hundred-year-old building.

"But ma'am, it has not been called the Spiritual Arts Academy but for the last two hundred years," a voice in the corner interrupted, before its owner stood up to answer, "They changed the curriculum of the Shinigami Academy to include the Kidou Corps and the Stealth Force after the Quincy War, becoming the Spiritual Arts Academy as a result." Naruto could see nothing about her but her long, almost waist-length pink hair.

The lecture hall was silent. Shikamaru and Naruto shared a glance before Takashi could comment.

"Miss, could you come down here for a moment?" the professor said with a smile, a warm and inviting one. The girl was eager to get up, and Shikamaru shook his head.

"She's about to get slaughtered up there." Naruto peered at him before turning his attention back to the girl.

The professor put her arm around the girl's shoulder in a warm, one-armed hug, a bright smile on her face. "Miss, could you tell everyone your name?"

The pink-haired girl proudly grinned. "Sakura Haruno, ma'am."

The professor let go of her and sat down in the front row. Everyone was confused for a moment, including Sakura. Finally, the professor said, "Go on, professor. Why don't you teach us more about the vast history of the Spiritual Arts Academy?"

Sakura, having realized at that moment she was being played, nervously looked down. She said something indeterminable, before hurrying back to her seat. She wiped her eyes, and Naruto frowned.

Most of the class was in uproar, laughing. But some were watching the girl with concern.

"Can the professor do that? Embarrass her students in front of everyone like that?" asked Naruto.

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah. Technically, Sakura  _did_  try to correct the professor, even though what she was correcting did not matter in the slightest. The Shinigami Academy just changed its name after the Quincy War; it didn't become a new thing, in the most basic sense."

"Whatever," Naruto whispered. "I still don't like that the professor did that."

Shikamaru could only shrug. "Well, no matter if the professor was in the wrong or not, Sakura has made herself a target. Hopefully Takashi is not a vindictive person, but she should be careful. Takashi does control the grades."

When that lecture class was finished, about forty minutes later, the practical classes began. First up was kidou, which Naruto was apprehensive but excited for. Everyone headed to the practice field, which included practice dummies and targets across a large, barren field.

"Narunaru!"

The blonde looked up to see Hinamori heading toward them. She smiled brightly, waving at him. "Hey, Momo! What are you doing here?"

"Sixth-years have to help as teaching assistants, so I chose to help the kidou classes for first-years this year. So that I could help you and Toshiro with kidou!" Momo grinned.

Naruto seemed to remember that Shikamaru was there. "Oh, this is our other roommate Shikamaru. Shikamaru, this is Momo Hinamori. We basically grew up together."

"Nice to meet you, Shika."

The boy seemed to flinch at the nickname, an odd reaction Naruto thought. "Likewise."

A blonde teenager with his hair hanging so thickly over his eye that Naruto was sure he would never have depth perception walked over and joined Momo. He was a sixth-year, based on his overall look. "Oh, Naruto and Shikmaru, this is Izuru Kira. He's one of the best in our year when it comes to kidou."

"Momo, I believe you know as well as I do that that title belongs to you," Kira countered, making Momo just shake her head. "Nice to meet you, freshmen."

The professor took over control of the class, having Momo and the other sixth-years line up the students in solid groups to make things more organized. The professor began to explain the purpose of the goal, which was to demonstrate the difference between hadou and bakudou. She explained the basic method of casting spells, using their reiryoku in a refined way, instead of the widespread pressure she hoped they could all use at this point. She went over the incantation, before having the sixth-years demonstrate the spells themselves.

Naruto watched Hinamori, who lined up in front of Naruto's column. She began the chant, the words rolling off of her tongue with no hesitation. Spirit energy seemed to wrap around her fingers as she chanted, blue gathering and shining brightly. She suddenly flicked her wrist as she pointing, shouting the words,  **"Hadou Number Four: Byakurai!"**

All of the sixth years emitted a large, fast bolt of blue lightning from their fingertips, hitting the targets and leaving scorching burns near the center. Naruto knew without bias that Hinamori's had been the most powerful in speed, intensity, and accuracy. She was a natural, and it made Naruto extremely envious. But Kira's could give her a run for her money, that was for sure.

"Very good," Professor Takashi said, before getting the others ready. She went over the incantation several times with everyone, having them all repeat after her. Naruto was sure he remembered it, but he went over it several times in his head and muttered it under his breath.

Shikamaru ended up going before Naruto. The brown-haired boy finished the incantation, shouted the spell, and pointed. There was only a tiny flicker of light at the end of his finger, but it was very fast just not very intense. Shikamaru cursed under his breath, turning around and taking note in his mind how to improve the next time.

He noticed the pink-haired girl Sakura next, watching as she stepped up to the plate. Naruto was surprised to see that she did not even say the incantation, before shouting the end of the spell and firing the kidou. It was not as bright or as fast as Momo's, but it managed to clip the target. She turned around, rather smug that she had done so without the incantation. The professor looked at her curiously, but Sakura did not notice. Naruto remembered the passage from the book about eishouhaki, or incantation abandonment. Was she really skilled enough to successfully produce a spell without saying the incantation, even though it was less powerful?

Naruto had to do right. As it was his row's turn, he took a deep breath and called on the power within himself. He began the incantation, the words spilling from his mouth surprisingly easily. He pointed his fingers and shouted, **"Master of the skies, pillar of all-consuming light! Split the heat from shadow and rend the heavens asunder! Hadou Number Four: Byakurai!"**

The blue lightning bolt was extremely intense, and if he was right, he thought it might have been more powerful than even Momo's. It, however, was too high to hit the target, leaving a large scorch mark on the wall behind the target. He stared at his fingers, feeling rather good about his display even though he missed.

Momo clapped him on the back. "That was great, Naruto. A little slow, but powerful!"

He beamed.

The next they were going to demonstrate was a bakudou spell. They were all lined up again, in the same order. She taught them the spell incantation and had the sixth-years demonstrate.

The human-shaped straw dummies could not stand a chance as Hinamori and the others stated the incantation, shouting,  **"Bakudou Number One: Sai!"**  The spell forced the dummies' arms back behind their back, painfully forcing them to bend backwards. Momo's reacted quickly and a little bit more forcefully than the others.

They released the spell, the straw dummies returning to normal before the students were allowed to begin. Shikamaru did the spell quite well this time, binding the dummy without causing too much trouble. He was proud that he was able to do the binding spell.

Naruto watched Sakura again, and she was able to do the spell again without incantation. Who the heck was this girl and why was she able to do this so easily? Had she prepared a lot or something for the class? Why was she in class two if she was so good?

Naruto stepped up to the plate, earning a good luck from both Hinamori and Shikamaru. He waited a moment, looking at this dummy before beginning the incantation.  **"Stop in the name of your god, kneel eternally at the feet of justice. Bind your hands in a fearful, never-ending prayer! Respect the authority of omnipotence! Bakudou Number One: Sai!"**

The training dummy before him immediately locked its arms behind its back, the effect taking so fast that it forced the dummy to the ground. He beamed, this time both accurate and powerful. Hinamori was stunned, her jaw literally open.

"Wow, Naruto," she said, still surprised. "I have to say, I didn't expect you to be as good at kidou as you are. You're better than I was when I was in year one. Excellent job."

"I don't know about that, Momo," Naruto said modestly, stepping back to let the next one perform the spell. "Isn't kidou your best subject?"

She nodded. "Yeah, it is. But that doesn't mean it can't be yours as well."

He thought about it a moment, smiling. Something about kidou felt natural to him, more natural than he would have thought. It was... familiar.

When kidou class finished, they were to head to the hakuda dojo. Once again, there were several sixth-year students there to demonstrate for the teacher, with practice spars and fighting forms, but there were not any familiar faces among the older students. Naruto paid a lot of attention to the demonstrations, but they were not going to get to spar any on the first day; that was where Naruto knew he would learn the most, when he actually got to fight someone one on one. Takashi got the groups lined up in blocks, and they each learned different punches, kicks, and other types of moves. The blonde was more interested in grappling than straight up punching, but he could already tell that hakuda was not his best.

That class went by without much of a surprise, and then it was time for another lecture about the inner workings and physics of reiryoku. Naruto and Shikamaru both had trouble staying awake, but Sakura managed to keep her mouth shut the entire period. All the math and equations was much too boring.

"If we have another class like that, there will not be enough naps in the world for me to stay awake the rest of the day," Shikamaru finally said, on the way to the cafeteria for lunch.

"No doubt," Naruto said. "That stuff is the stuff that's hard for me."

"Well, at least there isn't another lecture class the rest of the day," said Shikamaru as they entered the cafeteria and headed toward the line. "Two regular classes might not be as bad as I thought."

Naruto nodded, unsure. "Maybe not. If we're lucky."

They finished getting their meals and headed to find a table. Thankfully, Toshiro had already found one and was sitting with someone Naruto had not met. A tall, black-haired boy with violet-colored eyes. Both of them already had Asauchi blades on the backs, which bugged Naruto immensely.

"Hey, Toshiro," Naruto said, sitting down next to Shikamaru and across from the new kid. "Why do you guys already have swords?"

"Class one and two alternate schedules," explained the stranger. "Class one has zanjutsu and hohou in the morning, and kidou and hakuda in the afternoon." He paused, before smiling. "I'm Sojiro Kusaka."

"My name's Shikamaru Nara, and that's Naruto. So how were your morning classes?"

"Zanjutsu was really fun. They let us get Asauchi blades, but we ended up practicing with wooden swords. I guess they don't want us to kill each other," Kusaka said with a laugh. "Practicing shunpo was really interesting. And harder than you think."

Naruto laughed. "I can imagine it will be difficult."

"How were yours?" asked Toshiro.

"Naruto's practically a master of kidou," said Shikamaru without a moment of hesitation. "If he had hit his target with the first spell, there probably would not have been a target left. He had more luck with Bakudou."

Toshiro peered at him. "Really? I wouldn't have thought you'd be good at it because of how you have to memorize stuff."

The blonde shrugged. "Beginner's luck?" The others laughed. "Hakuda was not very fun. I don't see myself being very good at it."

"Me neither," Shikamaru added. "I can't see myself ever wanting to get close to someone and take them out with only my fists."

Toshiro laughed. The four of them talked for a bit longer, finishing their meals. The time was up as soon as Naruto finished his last bite, and they had to hurry off to hohou.

Class two was already milling about along the track, the breeze feeling very good today. The outdoor track was made specifically for using techniques based off of shunpo, because it was easily two hundred yards long. Naruto wondered if anyone had ever traveled two hundred yards in a single shunpo.

"All right, the basic shunpo is the most important technique to learn in hohou. In battle, outmaneuvering an opponent may be the only thing that can save you, especially if the opponent is more skilled or has more power than you," explained Takashi. "Having good footwork and being able to perform fast flash steps is one of  _the_  most important things you can do in combat."

The sixth-years lined up, and Naruto was amazed when they literally vanished from sight and then reappeared, before vanishing again in another step. They could cover several yards without even having to break a sweat. Naruto _had_  to know how to do this.

The professor explained the theory behind placing reiryoku around your feet and using it to sort of boost you through the environment, trying to help them visualize it so that it was easier to do. When it came time to try, Naruto thought he had a good concept of it.

Shikamaru ended up getting to go first out of everyone. He prepared for it a moment, before launching himself forward. He literally vanished for a second, before stopping almost thirty yards away. He looked at where he was, shocked that he had managed it.

"Well, that might be the fastest shunpo for a first year I've seen in years," Takashi commented, clapping. The other students clapped out of respect, but some did not like the display. Much in the same sense that many did not like that Sakura girl's outburst earlier.

Many students followed Shikamaru, but none were as fast as him. One girl, the girl Naruto had seen whose hair buns made her look like a panda, was fast enough that she hit fifteen yards faster than Shikamaru did, but they were only allowed one step to judge each other so she could not get as much distance as Shikamaru. Even the pink-haired Sakura girl tried, but she was only about half as fast as Shikamaru had been.

Then it came to Naruto. He lined up at the start and used his reiryoku to push himself forward, immediately "stepping." His vision and senses blurred for a briefest of moments before he found himself at twenty-five yards, nearly as far as Shikamaru. Takashi commented highly on his speed, but that Shikamaru had pretty much won over every student there.

"Interesting," Takashi commented. "A solid group of class two students this year. This will be interesting, I think, but it all comes down to your zanjutsu. Let's head to the dojo."

As they walked, Naruto caught up with Shikamaru. "You were great. How did you get to be so fast?"

The Nara boy smiled. "Good at running away? Sometimes, fighting is troublesome."

_Troublesome..._

That word stirred something in Naruto. Something about it seemed too familiar, too real. He'd used it before, but something about that phrase...

Shikamaru snapped his fingers in front of Naruto's face, stunning him and breaking his reverie. "We're here."

The zanjutsu dojo was a grand gymnasium, filled with sparring dummies and lined with protective mats. There were several marked areas that Naruto suspected were sparring arenas. Along one wall were several racks filled with Asauchi blades and wooden practice swords, and several of them were manned by sixth-years.

They all lined up on the wall opposite the racks, waiting on Takashi's signal to go over and pick up a practice blade and an Asauchi. The Asauchi blade would one day become their personalized zanpakutou, so everyone was anxious. Most people were muttering about picking the right one, but even Naruto knew that they were all identical katana.

"All right, class two, today we'll be working on several different forms and methods, but our first goal is to have each of you learn to respect the weapon you're to be given. For the first hour of this two hour class, you're going to be given your Asauchi blade and you're going to clean it, polish it, and sharpen it."

She went over a few more details, but once she was done, the sixth-years broke them into small groups again and had them go over to the rack and get both an Asauchi and a wooden practice sword.

Naruto was in the same group as both Sakura and the panda-headed girl, and he ended up behind her on the way to get the sword.

"I've seen you around," he said. "What's your name?"

The girl turned to look at him. "Oh, yeah. You were there the day of the exam, and you fired that super kidou earlier that everyone was talking about. It's a shame that it missed. I had both spells blow up in my face." She stuck out her hand. "Tenten."

"Naruto," he replied. "Both spells?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Kidou is not my thing. But I can't wait to get my sword!"

He grinned, liking her enthusiasm. "Me too. Can I ask you something though?"

"Sure."

"How did you perform that fast shunpo earlier? Like, you were faster than me and my roommate Shikamaru, but you didn't go very far."

She thought about it a second, as they both moved up in line. "I guess it's just a short burst of speed. I can't make the energy last for long enough to get very far, if that makes sense. It's hard to describe, actually."

It was hard to think about on the scale of shunpo, but it made sense.

"I don't think I have a lot of reiryoku, so I guess I can only go so far at a fast speed."

He pondered it a bit. "I bet there's more to it than just the amount of energy you have. You might can get a lot faster!"

"Maybe," she muttered, thinking it over.

"Actually, it has a lot to do with the amount of energy," said a voice. Naruto and Tenten looked forward to see Sakura, who had apparently been listening. "It also has a lot to do with how refined the energy is. It's all a balance of reiatsu and reiryoku."

Naruto and Tenten shared a look. This girl was a know-it-all. "That makes sense. Um, Sakura, wasn't it?" he asked.

She nodded. "Yeah. Sakura. What are your names?"

Tenten and Naruto introduced themselves. "How did you do all that kidou without an incantation?" asked Tenten. "Everyone noticed and was talking about it at lunch."

"Um, it's called eishouhaki, when you do a kidou without the whole spell," she explained, which Naruto confirmed with his own knowledge. "I was, um, trying to do it to make up for my outburst in class earlier... I was trying to show the professor that I wasn't... I guess I was trying to make up for it."

Tenten nodded. "Yeah, I can see that. It was really interesting that you could do all that with your kidou. I'm jealous."

Sakura laughed sheepishly, but the sixth-year finally called out, catching Sakura's attention. The sixth-year was a man who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen and had bright red hair that was eerily similar to Shikamaru's hair style. Sakura accepted her blade, her wooden practice sword, and her sharpening and polishing kit. Tenten and Naruto took their own and headed back, thanking the sixth-year as they did.

Tenten, Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru found each other and began to polish their new weapons, using the sharpening stones and the polishing kit to treat the blades. Naruto felt very, very cool holding the blade and he literally could not wait until they were allowed to start jinzen, that process to connect to their zanpakutou spirit. They worked relatively quietly, but they all learned some things about each other.

Like the fact that Sakura was from South Rukongai, district fifteen. That she had basically lived with a good family of other departed souls and that the district was pretty wealthy and that she had not had much trouble since her death. Tenten was from East Rukongai, district sixty-seven, and had had a much worse afterlife than the rest of them. Sakura had wanted to become a shinigami because of the stories she had heard about women in the Seireitei. Tenten had witnessed a battle against a hollow several years back, and she had really wanted to become one after that moment. Shikamaru had always wanted to do it, but he had not had the motivation to do it until this year.

When they were finished polishing their swords as a group, each were told to sheathe the Asauchi and get out their training swords. Takashi stepped forward and gestured for the sixth-year who had handed out the sword to Naruto, Tenten, and Sakura. "All right, Renji Abarai here is one of the most experienced zanjutsu users in the Academy right now. I'm going to have him go through some of your basic forms and stances with you, just to get your prepped. You need to be prepared because we're going to slowly start sparring over the course of the year, so knowing these basic steps will help you very much. Renji, if you would, take it away."

He gestured for them to split up so they all had room to move around if need be. "I'm not sure if I'm the right teacher for you guys, since I don't really know how to fight as well as I would like. But I know the basics and I'll teach you the basics as well."

He showed them several poses, several types of swings, stabs, and parries. Naruto absorbed each one, enjoying the possibility of using each in a spar against Toshiro and Momo one day. Toshiro would probably have gotten some advanced techniques because he was in class one, but those wouldn't matter. He'd show his friends what he could do.

* * *

Several months had passed by since the start of the Academy. Naruto was passing with flying colors. His hakuda was still his overall weakest link, but he felt like he was going to get better each day the more he practiced. He was probably the best in his class at sword-fighting, he had a surprisingly well-suited knowledge of kidou and had improved his accuracy tenfold since he started. He could sense reiryoku and control it relatively well, and all of his friends' reiatsu signatures were familiar to him.

He went through, finding each one once more just for practice. Based on her signature, Tenten was sitting in her room with her roommate Samui. Sakura was training in the Academy's sick bay, getting personal one-on-one time with a seated officer of Squad Four that Naruto had never met. Shikamaru was sitting outside the room, in the middle of a grassy knoll on the grounds and performing "jinzen," which was a fancy way of saying that he was taking a nap. Momo was busy in some kind of calligraphy class that a lot of girls went crazy for, probably because it was run by Squad Five Captain Aizen.

But something was wrong. Sojiro's presence was... gone. And had been gone for a few hours, which could be Naruto's error, but it had been too long. He and Toshiro had been called to meet with one of the higher-ups in the Academy, and then they both seemed to vanish from his presence. Now Toshiro was headed toward him, scaring him because of how distressed it felt, while Kusaka was nowhere to be found. .

It wasn't like the difference he felt when Toshiro gained his shikai a month ago. This was... distressed, very random and fluctuating.

Shikamaru opened the door to the room a couple of minutes later, appearing in a flash of shunpo. "Naruto, do you feel that too?"

"Something's wrong with Toshiro."

The two of them decided to head together to meet up with the other shinigami-in-training. It took them a few minutes to find the flash of silver hair to mark his presence.

"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed, causing the boy to look up a moment. Naruto's eyes widened when he saw the tears across the boy's face. "What... what's wrong?"

"Those bastards," he muttered, cursing and clenching his fists around the bloody blade. "Those damn bastards..."

Shikamaru, when he noticed the blade, did not step farther. But Naruto met the silver-haired boy and put his hand on his shoulder.

"I don't... I don't understand," Naruto commented.

Shikamaru seemed to notice something else. "Toshiro, where's Kusaka?"

The younger boy immediately cried out in anguish, dropping his sealed zanpakutou to the ground. The boy dropped to his knees in the middle of the school yard, tears streaming down his face. "I'm going... I don't... I don't understand. Why? How could this happen?" He continued to mumble incoherently, but Naruto finally forced the boy to look at the blonde.

"Toshiro, what happened to Kusaka?"

"They... they, no, Central 46 said that there could be only one," explained Toshiro. "Kusaka... Kusaka gained his shikai yesterday, and he... he had Hyourinmaru too somehow."

Shikamaru's eyes widened. "How is that possible? Zanpakutou are unique to the shinigami."

"I don't understand it either. But Central 46... they wanted us to fight to the death, to reveal the true owner of Hyourinmaru. Kusaka charged at me, forced me to fight him. I had him immobilized and I was going to just give up my sword so we would both be okay, but the stupid nobles wouldn't have it. The Stealth Force arrived, and I suppose you two can figure out what that meant."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Sojiro... he's dead?"

Toshiro nodded. "And it's all my fault!"

"It's not your fault. You can't help the power you were given, and neither could he. Central 46 is at fault here," Shikamaru said. "I'm sure there's another example where this law made sense in the past, but it should not even be an issue. It doesn't make sense that anyone could have the same zanpakutou as anyone else."

"That's what I thought," Toshiro said. "But Kusaka had Hyourinmaru just the same. I don't get it. I don't understand how they can toy with emotions like this."

Shikamaru shrugged. "It's probably one of those, 'We're doing it for the good of all, the bad of the few,' situations. Almost like the Quincy war."

They couldn't argue with that logic. Naruto realized that they probably needed to head inside and get out of the middle of the yard, where everyone could see. Toshiro followed the two roommates back to their joint room.

Naruto did not know how anyone could do this kind of injustice. But whatever had caused it, he wanted to know so he could get to the bottom of it. No matter how many years it took him. He owed that much to Kusaka and to Toshiro.

* * *

Takashi lined the entirety of class two along the outside of the building. She herself was not going to go, but she was going to open the Senkaimon for several sixth-years to get some prime experience leading a mission in the World of the Living. The first-years of class two were going to go and practice konso, or soul burial, in a population center with a high spiritual density called Karakura Town.

Naruto and the others had gotten an explanation from Toshiro about this little expedition, because class one got to do this same trip in first semester of the year. Basically, they were going to go to a barrier-enclosed area within the city, monitor the souls using konso, and fight dummy hollows along the way. They were not expected to be attacked by actual hollows, but it was a small possibility.

Renji, Izuru, and Momo were leading the expedition team, and a few other sixth-years had already left to prepare the area they were going to monitor for the night. This was the kind of thing Naruto craved, but he wished he had his shikai to feel more secure.

Toshiro had obtained his shikai about a month after this field trip earlier in the year. Naruto had wanted to get his own ever sense, just to see if he could get something as amazing as Hyourinmaru. He wished that Toshiro could enjoy his sword again, like he seemed to before Kusaka gained its unnecessary twin and got himself killed for it. Now, the silver-haired "genius kid" of class one could not look at his sword the same way.

None of Naruto's other friends had managed to obtain shikai, but Tenten and Samui both claimed they could hear their blades calling to them. Shikamaru, Sakura, and Naruto had yet to make successful connections to their zanpakutou, but all were certain that it was going to come sooner rather than later. Naruto fully expected to have learned his sword's identity before graduation, if not long before then.

Takashi wished them luck and gave them one last bit of advice, to make sure that they contacted the sixth-years if they got into trouble. And with that, she drew her blade and twisted it in the air like a key, causing a bright white circular portal made of a traditional Japanese door panel to open. After only another minute, Kira and Hinamori headed in first and called for the next group. When Naruto finally joined them passing through the portal, he remembered why he had not ever dreamed of flying.

Abarai brought up the rear, but the feeling of traveling through the Senkaimon was strange, each of them carrying the personal hell butterfly he had claimed earlier in the year. If one of them had not picked it up, they might have been shot through time like some kind of strange time traveler. The Cleaner was a powerful force, almost like a rushing locomotive.

The portal opened again on the other side to a beautiful city-scape. Naruto had never seen anything like this, having never seen all these lights and tall buildings and short buildings and schools. There were many rushing cars, strange contraptions that allow humans to get around. It was odd to see so many people living in one place, nearly as crowded if not more so than Rukongai or the Seireitei.

Naruto was fascinated. Simply fascinated by the large city, and he did not even have to wonder if he had seen a city like this in his past life. He was certain that he had not, because he was sure he would remember such a magnificent place.

Momo stepped to the front, shushing everyone and catching their attention. "Okay, you guys, it's time to get this thing going. The other sixth-years have prepared a certain radius and enclosed it with a barrier that will warn us of the appearance of actual hollows. The purpose is to simulate the experience that you may have while monitoring an area in the real world, like fighting the dummy hollows and performing konso on the souls here."

"This area has an unnaturally high reishi and reiryoku density for a place in the World of the Living," Kira explained, "so you should have plenty of souls to perform on. We'll be staying here for a period of one night before we had back to the Seireitei."

"Everyone understand?" asked Abarai, looking over all of them. Naruto nodded with his group, Sakura and Tenten. The three of them were going to fight the dummy hollows as a team, using their powers to complement each other.

Everyone split up with a single shunpo, Naruto's group heading toward the western perimeter of the barrier-enclosed city. They were assigned to go there and defeat any dummy hollows within a certain radius, before meeting back at the starting point.

"This should be fun," Tenten said as they finally found their spot, above what looked to be a high school being constructed. "Interesting."

"The dummy hollows should have a specific reiatsu signature we can track," Sakura said. "Naruto, will you confirm this for me? Can you feel one about four hundred yards to the northeast?"

Naruto opened up his senses, knowing that Sakura was probably right, but he still needed to check. When he felt the unique pressure he nodded, immediately gesturing for them to follow. The three of them shunpo'd to the area, surprising the mechanized hollow developed by the Shinigami Research and Development Institute.

**"Bakudou Number One: Sai!"** Naruto and Sakura yelled together, the dummy hollow not even able to react as it was flipped upside down, its claws forced together like they were bound.

Tenten shot towards it in another burst of speed, slashing at the mask with her Asauchi in a diagonal cut. It was immediately sliced in half with the mechanical sound of rupturing parts.

"Yeah!" she yelled, grinning at Naruto and Sakura. But something was happening while her back was turned. The two mechanical halves suddenly regenerated, forming two identical dummy hollows. Naruto saw was what happening a tiny bit faster than Sakura, and in one more flash of speed, he drew his blade and stepped in front of Tenten's back, blocking the first dummy hollow from attacking her.

He shoved it off and then slashed, destroying the first in a burst of spiritual pressure that caused it to explode from the effort. Sakura stepped forward and began another incantation. " **Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hadou Number Thirty-one: Shakkaho!"** A large red ball of energy gathered at her palm and fired, exploding on impact and reducing the second half to nothing.

The three of them took a deep breath, not one of them willing to sheathe their swords in case the hollows regenerated and doubled once more. "Those nerds at the SRDI love to cause mayhem, don't they?" asked Tenten, laughing uneasily when they were sure that the hollows were in fact destroyed. "Anyway, there should be a Whole around here if the hollow was attracted to this area, dummy or not."

Sakura nodded. "I think I've located it." She pointed to an alleyway about fifty yards away. The three of them ran over there, deciding not to shunpo so they didn't scare it off. It was a little boy, not even ten years old, with a broken chain of fate extending from his chest. He was scared, still hiding and flinching when they approached.

Tenten decided to do the honors, holding her sword up above her head. "I'm not going to hurt you, little boy. What's your name?"

The boy peered at her. "Sa-Satoshi."

"Well, Satoshi, I need to send you to the Soul Society. It's a beautiful place where you won't suffer anymore. Does that sound okay?"

The boy nodded slightly, and that was enough for Tenten. She took the sword, turned it around, and popped the boy on the forehead with the hilt. In a brilliant display of blue light, the boy vanished into the earth with a peaceful smile on his face. Naruto took a deep breath, taking in the serene moment.

"That felt... that felt good," Tenten said with a smile.

Immediately, the three of them flinched as a reiatsu signature popped into play again, only a few yards away. Naruto ran out of the alleyway, shocked to see that the tiny bits of the dummy hollow that existed before slowly started to regenerate. They were now standing next to nine different dummy hollows, each of identical size and reiatsu.

"What the hell?" he muttered, shocked that these still regenerated from their bits.

"We should have destroyed them more completely!" Sakura shouted, before getting proactive. She dashed forward, her sword at her side, before she launched herself into the air. She channeled reiatsu into her fist and smashed in the mask of one of them, before flipping away and heel-crashing into the mask of another. Both exploded into bits.

Naruto was impressed, but he had his own to worry about. He rushed forward, using shunpo to increase his speed. He slashed off the claw of one hollow, twisted and cut into the side of the another. He fluctuated his reiatsu to negate an attack to his side, before slashing outward and cutting that entire monster in half.

He jumped into the air and pointed.  **"Hadou Number Four: Byakurai!"** A stunning blue and white bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips, blasting directly through the mask of two hollows, making them explode into tiny bits.

Tenten chopped another in half, twisting her blade in an adept display of perfect zanjutsu form to destroy another in the same swing. Naruto grinned as he witnessed it, admiring her natural ability with a sword. Her speed was still impressive, besting Shikamaru and Nartuo but still having trouble with the stanima there.

The three of them joined each other and faced the last couple of hollows. The bits and pieces were about to reform, but it was time to finish this. Sakura whispered a plan to both of them, and the other two acknowledged that it would have to be enough.

Sakura shot both hands together.  **"Bakudou Number Four: Hainawa!"** A tendril of yellow energy shot from her hand, immediately binding the remaining hollows and the regenerating bits, almost like the net of yellow reiryoku.

Tenten, using her signature short term burst of speed, hacked the remaining dummy hollows to pieces, zigzagging with shunpo as she did. She zipped back to start, signaling Naruto's turn.

He leapt into the air, much like before, and held up both hands.  **"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws. Hadou Number Thirty-three: Soukatsui!"**

A huge blast of blue energy erupted across the entire area, looking like a mixture of blue fire and electricity as it exploded loudly on the ground. It enveloped every bit of the dummy hollow, leaving not a single piece intact and the entire area smelled of fire and almost brimstone. Tenten and Sakura braced themselves from the shock-wave, amazed at the intensity of Naruto's kidou.

Naruto popped back to his friends, breathing heavily after using so much reiryoku in such a short amount of time. He had quite a bit of endurance, but using so many spells and shunpo in a few minutes was difficult.

The three of them waited for several minutes, taking a breather and watching the area where the dummy hollows had been. There were no remains this time, nothing for the hollow to come back from, so they felt much safer.

"Let's keep patrolling," Sakura said. "I don't feel anymore hollow reiatsu in our patrol area, so we should be safe for the rest of the night. Let's just keep our eye out for any souls to perform konso."

The three of them did just that. At the end of the night, when everything was clear, they rejoined with the others in the sky at the center of the area. The other sixth-years joined Renji, Momo, and Izuru, the Senkaimon closed behind them. All the groups were praised by their individual efforts in handling the threats.

"Those threats were troublesome," Shikamaru commented, standing next to Naruto's group with his own. "What's the big idea with the SRDI? Are they trying to kill us?"

Momo laughed. "No, of course not. The duplicating dummy hollow was developed in order to test your ability to think things through. Hopefully you guys were able to do that, right?"

The first-years all nodded in agreement.

"Was anyone hurt seriously?" asked Izuru.

No one seemed to comment, because most groups had someone who was skilled with medical kidou and if something had happened, they would have been able to heal them relatively well.

"Then I guess it's time to go," Renji said, before turning to the Senkaimon. "Open!"

It slid open at the request, shining bright white light as they headed back to the Soul Society.

* * *

Naruto, Shikamaru, Sakura, Tenten, and the blonde-headed Samui quickly found a row of empty seats with a good view of the stage. Each of them were happy with their grades, having passed year one of the Spiritual Arts Academy with varying degrees of success. Every one of them managed to do average or better, and Naruto could not be more happy with his  _B-._  Sakura had the best grades of their little group, Shikamaru and Tenten ended up with a B, and Samui had a B+.

Naruto was very proud of all his friends. But even more proud of Toshiro and Momo.

The graduation ceremony was a buzz of activity, murmurs and rumors had been flying through the school about the special circumstances of the graduation. Not only were six out of thirteen captains present, but everyone was surprised to learn that a freshman was graduating. In under one year. Most did not know how or why the Silver-Haired Child Genius was graduating so soon, but most were happy for him. Naruto just laughingly hoped he'd stop being a brat now, but that was likely not the case.

When the ceremony finally began, a mustached man walked up to the stage. He had the look of nobility, a white coat on top of his shihakusho and a zanpakutou at his side. Naruto thought he could be a captain, but Sakura muttered in awe, "Chojiro Sasakibe, Lieutenant of Squad One."

"Good afternoon and welcome to the 2066th graduation ceremony for the Spiritual Arts Academy!" Naruto noted that his voice sounded very commanding, very deep and unyielding. The man introduced himself before saying, "Head-Captain Yamamoto is currently busy with other affairs, but I will be taking over the ceremony. First, however, I would like to introduce you to the captains that  _are_  present at this time."

He went through a list of names, each one bowing as they did. Squad Six Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, a noble who looked far too snobby for Naruto's liking. Squad Five Sosuke Aizen, a kind-looking man who took time out of his busy schedule to teach a calligraphy class. Squad Four Captain Retsu Unohana, whose kind and interesting demeanor completely unnerved everyone watching. Squad Seven Captain Sajin Komamura, a very tall, bulky man wearing a large, wooden contraption on his head that looked like a strange helmet. Squad Thirteen Captain Jushiro Ukitake, who looked a little bit pale and sickly to be out and about. And Squad Eight Captain Shunsui Kyoraku, a flamboyant man wearing a pink, flowery kimono.

Each took another bow at the end, and the students clapped and bowed back.

"Without further ado, let us begin the graduation ceremony. Would the graduating class please stand and prepare to come on stage?"

Tenten found Toshiro and the others, pointing and waving. Naruto shot him a thumbs-up, but he knew what the other boy was thinking. Kusaka should be here with him. Momo looked positively vibrant, Kira looked nervous, and Renji almost looked like he would hurl. Naruto was happy for all of them.

The lieutenant went through the names, each coming on stage and receiving a diploma before lining back up in front of the stage. Slowly but surely, Sasakibe called out, "Renji Abarai, of Squad Five!" the red-headed boy nearly tripped and fell trying to go forward, and Naruto wondered where this clumsy streak came from. He took the diploma happily and Naruto smiled at the idea of Squad Five for him.

"Izuru Kira, of Squad Five!" The blonde headed onto the stage, receiving his diploma and joining the others.

"Momo Hinamori, of Squad Five!" The girl happily accepted her diploma, ecstatic that it was Squad Five like she had wanted since she saw Aizen for the first time in her first year.

"All three of them are in Squad Five?" asked Shikamaru.

"That does seem a little bit... odd," Tenten added.

Naruto shrugged it off, but after Sakura expressed her concerns as well, he remembered the story of Hinamori's first field experience trip, much like their own. They had gotten attacked by Huge Hollows during their trip, and it was Squad Five Captain Aizen and his lieutenant Gin Ichimaru who had saved them. Naruto explained that story to the four of them.

"Maybe Aizen just wants to keep them safe?" offered Samui, brushing the blonde bangs out of her face. "Like he felt connected to them after that incident."

Shikamaru eventually just shrugged. "Eh, I'm sure that's all it is. It's not that weird, I guess, just a coincidence."

The line continued until finally, all the sixth-years had received their diplomas. Naruto and the others were so glad because Toshiro was the only one left, and he must have been feeling very out of place.

"This year, we have a special occasion that has not been done since Squad Five Lieutenant Ichimaru graduated many years ago," explained Sasakibe. "First-year Toshiro Hitsugaya, of Squad Ten!"

Naruto cheered, screaming his lungs off for his best friend. It was a special occasion, and soon, several other first-years joined in, including Shikamaru and the others. Toshiro walked up slowly, looking impossibly tiny compared to some of the other students who were graduating, and took his diploma from the Squad One Lieutenant. They bowed to each other before the boy happily joined the ranks of the graduated students.

Sasakibe and the captains stood before gesturing to the flag of the Academy. The graduates began the motto.  _"Do not seek beauty in battle. Do not seek virtue in death. Do not make the mistake of considering only your own life. If you wish to protect that which you must protect... slice the enemy you must defeat from behind."_


	4. Trial and Error

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

Naruto touched the hilt of his Asauchi. He sat down in the grass, Shikamaru only a couple of feet away from him lying on the top of the hill he had come to love so much. The lazy brunette was staring at the clouds, his sword lying across his chest.

The blonde had been trying to perform Jinzen all day, using the day off of classes to try to do something productive. The very next day was going to be another day of field training, and then next week Naruto and the other fourth-years were going to go through the Trials, a tournament-style competition. Naruto was optimistic, and pretty much every one of the fourth years were excited about it. Even Shikamaru seemed excited, but that could be feigning interest to get Naruto to shut up. At least he wasn't as bad as Samui, who could only say, "Cool," every time someone asked her about it.

Jinzen was difficult because he was not the most patient person in the world. He wished he could be more patient, but his mind was always too active to let his body calm down enough to try to connect with the spirit within. He knew it was going to have to happen, knew it would be necessary.

"It's not going to be forced, Naruto," Shikamaru began, peeking at him from the corner of his eyes. "You got to take it slow. Even Toshiro took it slow!"

"He got his shikai faster than anyone in the Academy in years. That's not slow."

Shikamaru sighed. "You don't see my point. I mean when he actually started, he sat and waited. You aren't being patient, you aren't letting it happen to you. You're trying to force it to happen."

"Oh yeah? Well, do you have your shikai?" When Shikamaru shook his head, Naruto nodded. "That's what I thought. I'm going to connect to my sword if it's the last thing I do."

"It just might be the last thing you do, Naruto," Shikamaru said. "Because you're never going to get there if you try to force your way to your shikai."

Naruto huffed, trying once more to close off all outside influences and think about Jinzen. He tried to think about the unsheathed sword laying across his crossed legs. Nothing was happening, so he tried harder.

"It's not going to work."

"Shut up. I'll get there."

The next day, the fourth-years of class two headed to the outside of the Academy's main building, meeting to discuss their mission before they actually left. The sun was high in the sky, so whatever the mission was would be in the daytime, thankfully.

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Tenten were in a three-man group, Sakura the odd one out this time. Toshiro had been in class one with Samui, who was probably busy with other projects today while they got to do field training.

The goal today was to guard a group of nobles from attack by assassins and dummy hollows, working together. They had done similar field work before, but this was the first year they were allowed to do these missions without any outside help.

Professor Takashi, still the teacher of class two even after all this time, began to outline the roles and goals for the mission. When she was finished, she let them go, opening up the Senkaimon as before. A barrier had been prepared already by the "nobles" they were protecting, who turned out to be other sixth-years who were not allowed to help or give advice.

Naruto rushed his group through the shining white gate, his own personal black and white butterfly accompanying him and then disappearing into the sky. He looked over their assigned area not too far from the center of the barrier-enclosed space, where the Senkaimon had been. The noble they were protecting was already there, pretending to be helpless.

Shikamaru gestured for them to focus on him a moment, his mind already forming a plan. "The idea is to protect our noble at all costs, right? Naruto, your Kido is our secret weapon. I want you to focus on Bakudo, while Tenten and I finish them off. If they get smart, switch up your attack method. I'll help you form a cloaking Kido around our noble."

Naruto nodded, immediately beginning to chant the incantation for a simple cloaking spell. Shikamaru joined him, speaking calmly and letting the reiryoku run through his body to enact the spell. **"Thinly veil from death's sight, all light from shadows turn away! Enshroud thyself in the masked oppression of the enemy's empty act! Bakudo Number Twenty-six: Kyokko!"** With their fingers, Naruto and Shikamaru drew an imaginary line around the noble, who was immediately surrounded by a dome of light that had the ability to hide reiatsu and appearance. The noble literally vanished from sight, with only Naruto and the genius able to see him if they focused hard enough.

They waited for several minutes, surrounding the place where the noble stood and lying in wait. Tenten was ready, her sword in her grasp and willing to fight, to taste blood. She knew her blade well, her natural ability with a sword and her connection to her zanpakuto spirit greater than any of the others in their group.

Shikamaru held up his blade, waiting and willing to fight if necessary. He was more apt to run away, use the speed he was blessed with to get out of dodge. He wished he could swap his reiryoku potency with Naruto, because if he had Naruto's vast energy pool, he'd be able to run at top speed all day. Naruto would be able to surpass him after a few dozen Shunpo if that was all they were focused on, simply because he had more energy to last him.

"Damn these guys are lazier than you, Shikamaru!" Tenten reprimanded, smirking as she kept her watch of the tree line only about twenty yards from her.

Naruto laughed. "Isn't that the truth?!"

The other boy could only roll his eyes, but before he could react, something hit the edge of his sensors. "Tenten! Twenty-five yards at four-o-clock!"

Just then, a member of the Stealth Force, wearing an all-black, ninja-like outfit that covered him from head to toe, leaped from the trees, holding his wakazashi blade in hand. Tenten braced herself, their swords clashing together before she shoved outward with her Asauchi, causing the ninja to use the pressure on the blade to jump off. He flipped in the air once, landed on his haunches, and then pounced with his speed again, trying to overpower her.

Tenten spun with a brilliant mixture of Hoho, before snapping her leg up in a move that would have made Sakura proud. The kick sent the Stealth Force member flying, but as he landed, his body evaporated into a paper-doll.

Immediately, the entire clearing burst with activity. Naruto cursed as he considered what was happening, his mind on protecting the noble from the false-assassins and the dummy hollows now surrounding them.

"Everyone, close your eyes!" He concentrated, pulling on the reiryoku within, before saying without incantation,  **"Bakudo Number Twenty-one: Sekienton!"** Red smoke appeared from nowhere, billowing from his palm until all three of them were obscured from sight. It was so thick that they could barely see each other, but this gave the other two a place to maneuver.

Shikamaru seemed to realize it was now or never, and he immediately burst from the cloud in a flash of speed. Naruto could not see what was happening, but the clashing of swords was all he could hear.

Tenten stepped back another yard or so and waited. A dummy hollow that looked suspiciously like a cat pounced at her like a feline. She threw up her blade and caught its claws, cursing that it pretty much had her sword locked into position. She repeated the same Hakuda kick from earlier, knocking it off before using Shunpo and her sword at the same time, slashing the cat hollow in half.

Naruto focused on seeing through the slowly dissipating smoke, his reiatsu sensing skills his only method of knowing what was coming. He felt the three assassins coming toward him from three different angles, his eyes widening.

 **"Bakudo Number Nine: Geki!"** The Kido started and took effect just as the three burst through the smoke cloud. He was proud it had worked, the paralysis spell capturing all three of them in a hue of red light that basically forced them to stand still in mid-attack.

He grinned mischievously, zigzagging toward each of them with sword slashes to the abdomen and the chest, turning them all back into paper dolls. He turned, just in time to see another one of the cat-like hollows breaking through the smoke on Shikamaru's un-guarded side. He Shunpo'ed forward, the entire hollow losing all of its right limbs before it exploded. The shockwave from the explosion finally helped to dissipate the smoke, the red cloud vanishing.

Tenten was locked in combat with two assassins. Shikamaru was busy trapped in between three cat hollows and an assassin, nearly pinned against a tree; a wound was obvious on his side, shocking Naruto, who had no expertise with healing Kido.

"Shikamaru! Clear out!" He took his zanpakutou, placed it horizontally, and began to chant.  **"Ye Lord! Creator of flesh and blood, lash out against the foundations of power! Destroy the basis of the eternal fight to survive! Crush the denizens of the dark with your all-consuming light! Hado Number Thirty-Two: Okasen!"** Bright yellow light extended along the length of his blade before firing in a wide, crescent-like arc of energy. Shikamaru only barely got out of the way in time before the blast hit the area, cutting through several trees before finally dissipating. There were no enemies left.

He twisted in the air, sensing something approaching the noble. A still wounded Shikamaru and Naruto flashed toward the hollow, arriving at the same time with enough time to block the cat from slashing through the cloaked-dome and revealing the noble's presence. Naruto tackled forward with his shoulder, shoving the hollow away from it before Shikamaru slashed downward, cutting though the hollow's mask like butter. Yet another exploded.

Tenten finally shoved with her upper body, catching the two Stealth Force wannabes off-guard. She then parried one strike, Shunpo'ed to the right, and slashed off the arm of the doll. She then repeated the maneuver, this time going to the left and cutting a large chunk of the assassin's side, returning it to the slip of paper it used to be.

The three celebrated having defeated all the enemies nearby. But Naruto caught some kind of reiatsu on his radar, and it was... different than anything he had felt before. Familiar, but... unique.

"I'll be back in a second!" He dashed towards it, leaving the wounded Shikamaru and Tenten more than a little confused. The strange presence was getting closer, probably just behind that ridge. He Shunpo'ed toward the source, popping around the cliff and hoping to find something.

It was gone. Just like that. Nothing. He frowned, wondering if he had just imagined the whole thing. He looked for clues for a moment, trying to feel for any residual reiatsu. He picked up a torn piece of cloth, the fabric obviously made of reishi and the same color as the black shihakusho that shinigami wore. He thought for a long moment before stashing it in his pocket and heading back to Tenten and Shikamaru, hoping to explain it to them and let them figure it out.

He did not know he was being watched. "Weird Academy kid felt me? Surprising." The stranger disappeared, thumbing the ripped portion of his shihakusho.

* * *

Preparing for the fourth-year Trials was on everyone's minds. Shikamaru was the only one who didn't seem to care, but Naruto knew he did deep down. Samui had been going over strategies and trying to analyze how it would all work out. Tenten had been trying harder and harder to connect to her zanpakuto, thinking that it might give her an edge. Sakura was practicing nonstop on her Hakuda, while studying Kido when she could. Naruto had been trying way too hard to mimic all of his friends' strategies, and it was dragging him down.

He wished he could contact Momo or even Toshiro, even though the latter never got to do any kind of trials, to give him some advice. However, both of them were likely far too busy with their squads to worry about him. He very much wanted to go and find the Squad Five barracks and see if she was available to speak, but the Seireitei did not take kindly to Academy students wandering the city. The guards, usually from Squad Nine, did not allow the students to travel within a certain number of yards away from the Academy, not wanting them to be roaming around in case they were spies.

It sounded like hogwash to Naruto. Who would spy on the Seireitei? Hollows were not sophisticated like that, and Hell was busy with their own affairs. Who else could possibly be there to do that?

That reminded him of the reiatsu signature he had found a few days ago, and the fabric piece to show for it. Something about it had been strange, too strange to forget about it. He reached into his pocket and studied the piece of shihakusho fabric, still wanting to know what it was. None of his friends had any ideas, but both Shikamaru and Sakura claimed they would think about it.

He stood up and looked through his Kido textbook, suddenly getting a good idea that might work. He flipped to the page, hoping to find that one spell he had seen before. It was an advanced spell, probably something that an Academy student should not try, but he was confident.

He placed the piece of fabric on the desk, placing his hands around it in the hopes that the spell might be able to find any kind of residual spiritual pressure.  **"Heart of the south, eye of the north, finger of the west, foot of the east, arrive with the wind and depart with the rain. Bakudo Number Fifty-eight: Kakushitsuijaku!"** As he chanted, he drew a circular diagram of kanji around the fabric in ink.

Immediately, the diagram and the area around it began to glow with white-blue light. He felt his spiritual senses increase, so much reiatsu flooding into his mind and being found and located. He concentrated on the fabric, his brow furrowing in the effort, but no matter where he looked, the fabric was unknown.

The spell faded, taking the ink with it. He knew the spell had worked, but he had found nothing. He had seen that particular Kido demonstrated in class late in the year last year, and they had combined it with another Kido so that everyone in the class could visualize the Reiraku, or spirit ribbons. Naruto could not find any ribbons that matched up to the tiny bit of reishi on the fabric.

"Well, that was a bust," he muttered, upset. "I should probably do what Samui suggested and explain it to the Academy."

He put the shihakusho fabric in his pocket, deciding to head to the main office and give it to whomever he needed to. They would ship it to the SRDI or the Kido Corps to be analyzed, and then hopefully, the right people could find the source of the shihakusho.

The secretary took it from him, giving him the strangest look. "Where did you find this?" the squat woman asked.

"In the World of the Living, during our field training last week," he explained, telling the woman about using Kido to try to track it. "I was hoping that the source would have come back to the Soul Society, because it was obviously torn off of a shihakusho, but I couldn't find anything."

She nodded, rubbing it with her fingers. "I'll have it sent to the SRDI. They can use their scanners there to track it, even between worlds. What was it about the situation that worried you?"

Naruto stopped to think for a moment. "I don't know, really. The reiatsu felt... felt malicious. Like... evil. I don't understand it really."

"Like a hollow?"

"No. Not like a hollow either. It's hard to describe unless you were there."

The secretary nodded. "Okay, I'll take care of it. Thank you!"

Naruto nodded, heading out of the room to hopefully get some more Jinzen in. He wished he had more time to prepare, but the Trials started tomorrow, and there was too much on the line already.

* * *

Toshiro looked up from his paperwork as someone came in, heading toward the captain's office. Toshiro stood from his desk, intercepting the newcomer, a messenger who seemed to be a little bit tired.

"Hello, can I help you?"

The messenger bowed to him. "Sixth Seat Hitsugaya." He brought out his parcel, wary though to hand it to him. "I was tasked to deliver this to Captai-"

"I'll take care of it," he explained, taking the parcel from him. "What is it anyway?"

"A fourth-year Academy student found this piece of a shihakusho and an odd reiatsu signature. The Academy sent it to the SRDI first, but Captain Kurotsuchi did not want anything to do with it, as the SRDI is busy investigating the recent murders of several Rukongai citizens. Squad 10 was the place he suggested, so I was going to bring it to the captain."

Toshiro nodded, his mind on Naruto and his other friends when he heard that it was related to a fourth-year. Had one of them found this? "Thank you very much. I'll have the squad look it over."

The messenger nodded, disappearing in a dash of Shunpo.

Toshiro opened the parcel and took out the piece of fabric. It didn't seem to be anything special, but he knew it might be worth looking into. He took it back to his office and prepared the paperwork report, obviously needing that to be done before he could move to figure anything out. He closed his eyes and tried to trace the Reiraku around it, but nothing happened. That was frustrating.

He pondered the recent murders, not knowing much about them due to his lower rank, but rumors spread like wildfire. Could these two incidents be related? The murders happened months ago, but they could not find the perpetrators. Had someone from the Academy stumbled upon the culprit? And if so, does the fact that this was a shihakusho imply that the culprit was a shinigami as well?

Toshiro shuddered at the thought.

* * *

Naruto finally arrived at the site of the Trials, a huge combat course set up to test each of the four combat disciplines, or Zankensoki. The arena was huge, dotted with large boulders and trees. Several large sets of audience stands surrounded the area, elevated so that they could all witness the fights without being in the line of fire. Several robed Kido Corps members were present, having constructed barriers to guard the stands in case of a stray spell.

The fourth-year Trials were a huge deal, and there was usually a representative from each of the three branches of the military that the Spiritual Arts Academy fed, as well as Squad Four's medical presence. The blonde-haired shinigami-in-training could not tell where any of them were by looking through the fenced-in "dugout" area for the combatants. The dugout was located at one corner of the entire arena, so not a good angle to see all the audience stands.

People filed in, many of them students from the Academy and nobles who were probably related to kids in both class one and class two. Naruto had been to one of the Trials before, and it was one of the most exciting things he had ever witnessed. Now he was here, about to fight in it.

"Excited?" asked Tenten, joining him next to the fence and looking out over the busy crowd.

He nodded. "Yeah. I really am."

"Me too," she said with a grin. "I have a feeling you're going to need me to wish you luck, so good luck!"

He smiled. "You too."

The teacher of class one, Gengoro Ounabara, headed up to the front of the large room, getting everyone to settle down. Naruto and Tenten found a seat near the others. There were probably nearly two hundred kids ready to participate in this week-long event.

"Settle down, settle down," the man began, scanning the crowd. "I'm sure you already know, but just so that everyone is on the same page, let me go over the format of the week's events. Today is the preliminary phase. Tomorrow is round one, Wednesday is Round Two and the Quarter Finals, and Thursday will be both the Semi Finals and the Finals.

"But in today's preliminary, each of you will need to go out there and demonstrate each of the four Zankensoki, and the judges will grade your performance. If you are above the standards we have set prior to the start of the Trials, you will move to the next round, a sixty-four-participant tournament. For those of you that struggle in a certain area of the Zankensoki, you can make up for your score in another area. But if you are too low in more than one area, you will most likely not be able to hit the minimum number of points that you need to succeed. Does anyone have any questions?"

No one spoke up, everyone seemingly understanding. Shikamaru turned to his friends and whispered, "They probably have the standard set high in order to get to sixty-four fairly."

Sakura nodded. "That makes the most sense. I don't remember what the score you had to get to was last year, but over sixty percent did not pass the preliminaries."

"Well, no pressure then," Samui said. "Cool."

* * *

Naruto stepped out onto the field, his turn for the preliminaries. There were about fifteen other students on the field at the same time, each turned in ways so that they would not interfere with one another at all.

His mind was still grappling with the fact that all of his friends did so well. Shikamaru's skill with Hoho was almost unmatched, but Naruto found more and more lately that he had come very close to bridging the divide in terms of speed with him. Sakura had given a wonderful display of Hakuda and Kido, destroying all the targets relatively easily. Tenten showed a lot of skill with Hoho and her Zanjutsu, which was really her greatest asset. Samui had not competed yet, but he was certain that her Zanjutsu, her Hakuda, and her Hoho would be her best.

Naruto wanted to do well, so he put any form of nervousness or hesitation at the back of his mind. He found his place on the field, preparing to compete. The judges were watching, grading each performance.

He signaled that he was ready, and the targets appeared on the field: several steel training poles, several straw training dolls, and lots of long-range wooden targets. He knew his Kido was one of his strongest disciplines, so he decided to save that for last.

He gathered reishi around his feet and blasted forward, pouring as much speed as he could into his step. He slashed at one of the steel poles, making a loud noise that was sure to attract attention. He spun in the middle of one step and brought his sword down, immediately bifurcating the straw dummy and leaving it in shambles. As the head of the straw dummy was about to hit the ground, in a blaze of speed, he chopped the head to pieces. All before it could touch the ground.

He put his sword away and used Shunpo again, hitting a punching bag with a series of well-placed kicks and punches. He knew it didn't have the power and finesse it needed to have, but he continued his Hakuda barrage until he hoped it was enough.

He turned to the targets with another dash of speed, his lips forming the incantation for a combination that Momo had taught him.  **"Disintegrate, you black dog of Rondanini! Look upon yourself with horror and tear out your own throat! Bakudo Number Nine: Horin!"** As he chanted, an orange and yellow energy thread appeared. He flicked his wrist toward the targets, entrapping each of them with expert guidance until all of the wooden targets were connected to his hand like some kind of web of Kido.

Without the incantation, he shouted,  **"Hado Number Eleven: Tsuzuri Raiden!"** Instantly, a current of flickering yellow electricity channeled through the  **Horin**  thread, destroying each of the wooden targets at the same exact moment. He dissipated the Kido thread as he was finished.

He bowed to the judges, wishing that they would just give him his results now and let him know if he got to go on to the next round. Despite the fact that that wasn't how it worked, the judges seemed pleased.

* * *

Later that night, Naruto and his friends visited the tiny restaurant near the Academy, where they often met up to celebrate and just have a good time. It was called the Wandering Sage, and it had such a nice atmosphere that they always felt at home.

They were celebrating tonight because all five of them passed through the preliminaries with flying colors.

"I wish we knew our individual scores," Sakura said, curious. "I'll bet we were all close."

Tenten shook her head. "Well, everyone except Naruto."

His eyes widened as everyone laughed at his expense. "Hey! What was that for?!"

Shikamaru snickered. "Come on, Naruto. She meant that you were better than all of us."

"Better than all of you?"

Sakura nodded, understanding their train of thought. "You were well-balanced. On that type of scoring system, you were able to get more points and a good score overall, because your above average on three out of four, and your Hakuda wasn't bad."

"The rest of us have more stuff limiting us," Tenten explained, agreeing with Sakura.

He considered it a moment. "Hmm. I never thought of it like that."

Just then, someone ran up behind him and hugged him around the neck. "Narunaru!" When he realized it was Hinamori, he laughed and turned around, hugging her back.

"Momo, what are you doing here?" he asked, moving over to let her have a seat.

She grinned. "I thought you might be here. The Trials are this week, right?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, we all passed the preliminaries."

She smiled brightly. "I knew you guys would! That's awesome!"

"What have you been up to, Momo?" asked Naruto.

The Squad Five Eighth Seat considered it a moment. "Well, I have been swamped with paperwork. Ever since those murders, Squad Fiv-"

"Murders?" asked Samui, shocked. "Not cool."

"A couple of months ago, a few low-ranked and unseated shinigami of multiple squads disappeared," explained Hinamori grimly. "We found them spread across several jurisdictions in the World of the Living, along with several normal souls."

Shikamaru was surprised. "A coordinated Hollow attack?"

Momo shook her head. "No. It was... someone with a blade. And unusually, their bodies were completely drained of reiryoku."

The surprise was evident on everyone's faces. Naruto thought back to the last trip they took for field training. "Guys, do you think this could be related to that weird reiatsu signature?" Shikamaru pondered it a moment, and Tenten could only shrug with a frown on her face.

"What weird reiatsu signature?"

Naruto explained his story about trying to locate it, finding the piece of shihakusho, and then trying to trace it. "When I couldn't find anything, I took it to the office and they said they would send it to the SRDI."

Momo considered it a moment. "No, that wouldn't work. Captain Kurotsuchi probably wouldn't think it worth investigating, just because it came from an Academy student. I can't predict how he might think, but he probably sent it to either Squad Thirteen or Squad Ten."

"Maybe you could ask To- I mean, Sixth Seat Hitsugaya," Sakura suggested. "If they found anything from it that might point to the murderer, he might know about it."

"That's assuming that Squad Ten got it at all, but I could ask Rukia as well," said Hinamori, more to herself than the others.

"Who's Rukia?" asked Samui.

Momo laughed. "Oh, I guess you guys never got to meet her. She would have graduated in my year, but she got to graduate from the Academy early because she was adopted by the Kuchiki family."

"Kuchiki?" asked Sakura, almost stunned. "They're one of the Four Great Noble Houses!"

Hinamori nodded. "Yeah, it's kind of a big deal. Anyway, she's in Squad Thirteen, and we're still good friends. I wish I had more time to visit my friends, but Captain Aizen keeps me so busy..." She trailed off, frowning.

"Is there anything we can do to help you with the investigation?" asked Tenten. "I'm sure that we could do something."

Momo shook her head quickly, before lowering her voice. "No, I probably would get into trouble for speaking to you at all about it actually!" She laughed nervously. "No, what would help me is if you guys keep up the good work and graduate, all right? Just concentrate on your grades and these Trials."

The five students nodded, a little disappointed they couldn't help. "Speaking of the Trials again," Shikamaru began, "you wouldn't happen to have any advice, would you?"

Momo laughed. "Yeah, of course. I got to the quarter-finals in my year, and Renji and Izuru finished in the semi-finals. Is there anything you want to know specifically?"

"The next part of the tournament is basically one big tournament-style fight, right?" asked Naruto. The young shinigami nodded. "Is there anything in particular you would recommend we do in a fight? Like, anything unusual that may help you do better?"

Momo considered it for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, of course. Remember your training in class and don't be afraid to step out of the rigidity of the fighting styles they've taught to you. Make your fights your own. Be more clever than your opponent, and you have a better chance of winning."

* * *

With the bracket decided, Naruto studied his place in the first block, realizing that if he had to win three in order to face any of his friends, the first one being Sakura if she won all her matches.

Tenten and Shikamaru were on the opposite side of the bracket, isolated enough that they would face each other in the semi-finals if they squared off. Samui was in a corner bracket all to herself, but Naruto would face her in the semi-finals if she won all of her matches.

"Welcome to the Tournament Round of the Year Four Trials!" shouted a voice, which turned out to be Professor Takashi. "Round one will take place today, and will include all the first match ups. The goal to win is to fight until your opponent is unconscious or surrenders, or until the judge declares the fight over in order to save a life. It's an all-out brawl, and we have medical staff from Squad Four and the Kido Corps here in the rare chance severe wounds are dealt. We pride ourselves that no one has died in over twenty years, so good luck to each and every one of you!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. Twenty years? That didn't sound like a long time...

"All right, would our first combatants come forward to fight? Temari, from class one! And Daisuke Nakamura, from class two!"

Naruto watched as the first two opponents stepped into the arena. The first was a black-haired boy with a snide expression and almost toad-like features. The other was also in class one, a blonde girl whose hair was essentially pulled up in four pigtails.

Temari and Daisuke bowed to each other, right before the announcer shouted, "Begin!"

The boy wasted no time, rushed toward her, and drew his blade. Not using Shunpo turned out to be his biggest mistake. The girl smirked, flashing out of sight.

The boy collapsed completely, blood shooting from a gash in his abdomen.

The blonde girl stopped, sheathing her blade.

The fight was over in literally under a minute, and Naruto had never imagined it would be that quick, that fast.

"And the winner is Temari, from class one!" People cheered for her, and Naruto could only look in awe at his friends, who were just as surprised. This Temari girl was strong, and close enough to Naruto that he would face her in Round Three.

The next two fights lasted a bit longer, but they were both finished soon enough. One boy had been very good at Hakuda, but no other standout traits. And then it was Naruto's turn.

"Naruto, from class two! And Shiro Gintama, from class two!"He was fighting against a skinny, tall boy with brown hair. The boy was someone Naruto had probably not said more than two words to in his Academy experience. Naruto was scared, wondering just how good he was, if he was good at all.

"Begin!"

Naruto did not make the mistake the boy made in the first fight. He used Shunpo to dash to the right, just in time to dodge the boy's super-fast strike. He turned and shouted,  **"Bakudo Number One: Sai!"**

The boy stopped in his tracks, the Kido forcing him to his knees with his hands behind his back. His opponent struggled, trying to break free, but he increased the energy in the spell.

Naruto walked toward him, keeping his sword in hand in case the boy broke free. When he realized that the boy couldn't overpower it, he grasped the pressure point at the base of the neck, forcing the boy to fall over unconscious.

Naruto sheathed his blade and the fight was called for him, some cheering him on. He lifted the boy and carried him to the medical team, before heading to the dugout.

"Wow, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed.

"It's not that big of a deal," he muttered. "He just... wasn't good. He should have used his reiatsu to counter the spell."

"Well, it doesn't matter very much now," Samui said. "You were really cool out there."

"Thanks, Samui."

Naruto waited patiently, resting a bit as he watched the next two fights. When they were finished, he realized Sakura was up next.

The pink-haired girl gulped, before heading out onto the field. It was her time to shine, Naruto knew, and he hoped it went well for her.

The announcer called out both the fighters names, Sakura Haruno versus a slightly overweight girl with twin braids on both sides of her face. The two girls looked ready to fight, and Sakura's opponent drew her blade.

"Begin!"

Naruto watched in awe as Sakura did not even draw her sword, running toward the girl instead with her fists outstretched. Sakura shot up a knee, impacting on the girl's stomach and forcing her to double over, her sword hanging limply at her side. Sakura then forced an elbow in-between her opponent's shoulder blades, knocking her to the ground in a heap.

The bigger girl, however, was not about to be outdone. She shot up to her feet in a surprisingly quick manner, ignoring the pain she was obviously feeling and slashing at Sakura's exposed shoulder.

**"Bakudo Number Eight: Seki!"**

A shining blue orb of light appeared, blocking the sword strike to the shock of the opponent. As the Kido dissipated, the opponent began to chant the incantation for Shakkaho, but Sakura shook her head. She grabbed the girl's shoulder, channeled reiryoku into her hand, and yanked the girl toward her as hard as she could, before Shunpo-ing to the left out of the way. The opponent crashed into the boulder behind where Sakura had been standing, her body slacking against it and her Asauchi skittering across the rocks.

The girl was obviously unconscious now, her body limp. The match was over, with Sakura as the obvious winner, but Sakura walked over to the girl she had just defeated. She held her hands over the girl's worst wound, a large bruised area on the back of her head that might have induced a concussion if she was not careful. She began an incantation, her hands glowing with blue-green reiryoku as she tried to heal the worst of the wound.

The girl's eyes fluttered open after a few moments, and Sakura took a deep breath and exhaled. "Sorry for being so rough. You're going to be just fine now."

Sakura weakly returned to the dugout as the medical team collected the girl. Sakura had expended quite a bit of reiryoku during the healing process and felt the sting of exhaustion that often accompanied it for a few minutes after using it. Healing Kido was something that took quite a bit of control, and while she had the right mindset for it, it took a lot out of her without preparation like that.

All of her friends were glad to see her, shocked at her display and even more shocked that she had healed her enemy. "It's just the human thing to do."

"We're not human."

"Ah, shut up," Sakura muttered, laughing at Shikamaru's deadpan sarcasm.

"The manhandling you just did was not human!" Tenten said with a grin. "That was just awesome!"

Naruto laughed. "I have to agree with Tenten there."

The matches continued, with everyone watching the opponents for anything that was worthy of remembering about a potential opponent. Naruto had his mind on how to beat someone like Temari, who had defeated her opponent in one fell-swoop. Sakura was someone to be scared of, and he had never really seen Samui in action because she was in class one. He didn't know her skill-set as well as he should.

Nevertheless, her match came up next among Naruto's friends, and she approached the battle with a cool, easy-going demeanor. She was much too confident to let something as trivial as losing worry her, at least at this stage.

"Samui, from class one, and Airi Hamasaki, also from class one!" Airi was a brunette girl with an obscene amount of make-up on and her hair dolled up in a stylish bun. She was also the first person Naruto had ever seen that basically changed the uniform to fit her needs, other than Naruto's white and orange headband that Ame had made for him. Her white kosode was tainted with pink cords, and her red hakama almost looked like it was too tight for her to move.

Samui looked at the girl with complete ridicule, wondering what the girl was thinking dressing like a common slut. "Definitely not cool," she muttered under her breath.

"Begin!"

Samui waited, letting the battle happen to her for a moment. She would react, of course, but she needed to test the girl's abilities for a moment.

The girl drew her sword, her zanpakutou hilt completely pink in a way that made Samui wonder if the girl had achieved Shikai. If that was the case, Samui had to react because she didn't know if she wanted to deal with that.

The blonde poured reiatsu into her joints, leaping into the air above the girl in one motion. She spun in mid-air, before pushing off the air and into a dive, her angle directly toward the girl. She immediately drew her Asauchi and let gravity do the rest, hoping to catch the girl on the shoulder of her sword arm and leave her momentarily offenseless.

But to her surprise, Airi caught her blade with the edge of her sword, spinning the steel in a circle so fast that Samui's Asauchi was knocked out of her hand in the split second of their swords clashing together. She threw up her hands in a cross over her face, but Airi slashed at her abdomen, dealing a minor cut before Samui could dash backwards, pushing her entire body off of the air with reiryoku.

She landed on her toes, skidding across the ground and kicking up dirt before coming to a flat-footed stop. She cursed the fact that her sword was still several yards away, and if this girl could Shunpo in that dress, there was no telling what could happen in the next moment. She began to chant, not good enough to guide the Kido without the chant and definitely not good enough to hold this girl down.

 **"Bakudo Number Four: Hainawa!"** She cast the spell, shooting a weak line of yellow light at her sword, wrapping it around the blade, and tugging. Airi tried to react, reached out to grab the sword before Samui could retrieve it. The brunette even made a last ditch effort to swing her sword and cut through the line of Kido, but it was not enough.

Samui yanked it, retrieved it, and then used Shunpo to burst herself forward, swinging her sword in a downwards arc. She almost smiled to herself when the sword caught the girl on the hip, drawing blood.

Airi screamed, something about messing up her clothes, and surrendering. Samui considered it a moment, before putting her sword back on her back and shrugging mentally. The announcer declared her the winner, and Airi headed toward the medical booth, holding her side.

"Samui, that was epic!" Naruto said, beaming. "You're tough as nails, and that Kido was sick!"

"I just wish I could do that kind of stuff on the enemy," she said, proud of herself for what she  _could_  do. "I'm lucky I walked away without a scratch."

"Why are you all so self-deprecating?" asked Shikamaru, sighing as though he was exhausted. "You guys are trying to downplay what you're good at. Stop it, it's troublesome to have to listen to every time one of us walks out of a match."

Naruto laughed. "Geez, Shikamaru, calm down."

"Yeah, we're all lucky we walked away without more a scratch," Sakura explained, leaning over and applying healing Kido to Samui's only cut, a minor wound on her stomach. "These matches could go either way."

Shikamaru just shook his head, not convinced at all. Truth was, he had pretty much looked several steps ahead at the start of each match his friends were involved in, remembering their skills during the preliminary and using that information to think, to plan. He already had a list of possibilities for his first opponent. He smiled at the possibility of food, hoping to get a good meal so he'll have plenty of energy to win.

After Samui's match, there were not really many more notable matches, other than the one that literally ended in a draw, with both fighters knocking each other unconscious in the same moment, a dual Hakuda showdown. It had been decreed that both were eliminated, giving the next fight a chance to have a bit of reprieve.

And with that, lunch.

* * *

They headed toward the large pavilion that had been set up, each enjoying the fresh, open air with their food. Samui, Naruto, and Sakura were famished, each eating to restore themselves to their former glory. Shikamaru and Tenten did manage to eat foods with good fiber and reiryoku quality.

"You two ready for your matches?" asked Sakura, genuinely curious.

Tenten proudly smacked her hand on the table, fiercely showing that she was not scared. "I'm completely ready."

"Me too," Shikamaru said. "I wish I didn't have to fight, actually, but I can't help but continue. I feel like this has my grade on the line, you know?"

Naruto nodded, understanding where the boy was coming from. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm sure Takashi will have to give us a good grade if we do extremely well, and I want to win it all!"

Tenten glared at him, and Shikamaru smirked. "Looks like you'll have to get in line."

They sat and ate for several more minutes, but Naruto noticed that everything started to get quiet in the pavilion, the hungry participants suddenly stopping all activity. A few of the rows near the front of the structure got up, prompting everyone else to stand by default. Naruto was confused, not having figured out what was happening until Sakura yanked him up by the collar of his shirt.

Everyone was stark quiet, as the two figures that were approaching finally arrived. Naruto's eyes bugged out when he realized whom it was: Squad 4 Captain Retsu Unohana and Squad 4 Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu.

"No need for formalities," the woman said with an air of authority that made everyone, including Naruto, scramble to get back into their seat. Even though they were all back sitting, they still did not turn back to their meals, staring at the captain and her lieutenant like they were completely alien.

 _"What is she doing here? A medical update?"_  was the question on everyone's minds, her presence shocking even the most solid of personalities.

Tenten's eyes grew wider and wider when she realized that the woman was approaching their table, apparently the first to recognize that fact. She wanted to whisper to warn them, but she was too... speechless and nervous to speak.

When Captain Unohana, one of the most regal and noble figures in all of the Seireitei, stopped at their table, Naruto could almost feel the nobles pressing their eyes on their heads.  _"What was she doing approaching class two trash?"_ was probably what they were thinking.

"Forgive me for intruding on your meal," Captain Unohana began, her eyes meeting the green eyes of Sakura. The pink-haired shinigami-in-training shook her head as if to say, "No, you're not intruding." No one dared speak though, for they may say something they will regret later.

"I was so astounded by something that I witnessed today that I had to come and find you to thank you," the woman said, her smile penetrating. "Your efforts to save the girl you had just defeated displayed one of the most admirable qualities that any shinigami can possess, no matter the Squad. Your quick thinking and total respect for the girl you had defeated allowed her to escape your bout without a concussion. Thanks to you, this young girl will be able to sleep tonight without any complications, maybe even in her own bed." She paused a moment, letting Sakura's blushing and gushing go down.

"Thank you so much, Captain Unohana!" the pink haired girl cried. "I'm glad that the girl is okay."

She gave Sakura another smile before turning to Samui and Naruto, the other two people on the table who had fought in the earlier fights. "You also both did well. You caught my eye, Naruto, when you performed that combination Kido during the preliminaries, and I do not expect anything less of you from here on out. And Samui, your expert fighting finesse should be complimented, but you need to work on your Zanjutsu a bit more. You both have a lot of room to improve, and I look forward to watching the rest of your battles unfold." She turned to the other two members of the table, before addressing everyone in the pavilion. "Good luck with the rest of your fights today, and be sure to fight to the best of your ability!"

Captain Unohana and her silent lieutenant Kotetsu walked out of the pavilion in a silence that was so loud you could hear a pin drop.

"Cool," Samui muttered, a smile on her face.

Shikamaru cursed as soon as the surprise died down. "That woman is devious."

"Devious?" asked Sakura, almost in outrage at Shikamaru. "How dare you think she is devious!?"

"Yeah, Shikamaru, what are you getting at?" asked Naruto.

"Look at all the stares, you guys," he nearly whispered. "She's painted a target on our backs with this little visit."

Naruto finally noticed the looks that everyone around them were giving the entire table. The nobles had such distaste on their faces that he wondered if those expressions were even legal.

"The nobles are pissed," Tenten said halfheartedly, upset now after that uplifting and inspiring visit. "Great. We'll have pretty much the majority of class one trying to destroy us."

Shikamaru nodded. "That woman has either done this out of pure ignorance to how it would affect the others or she wanted everyone to feel like rioting against us, probably to make things more exciting."

"Great," Naruto mumbled. "Just great.

"But she could have just done this to make us feel better, to give us a reason to win," Sakura suggested, not wanting to see the negative side to what Unohana had just done.

"Maybe," Shikamaru considered it. "But I doubt it."

* * *

Tenten headed out onto the field, which had already been transformed an interesting degree thanks to explosive Hado and impressive sword bouts. She thought over her strategy and wondered if she would have to use it. Knowing how fast the fights so far had been, she figured that she would be fine if she won, and that there would be a good time for it later.

Her opponent was a tall, largely built woman who looked like she was in her early thirties, which was no unusual but also not common. Her name was Murasaki Ito, and she was from class one.

"I bet you think you're so special," the girl commented, spitting at the ground and running a quick hand through her curly black hair. "Is that what you think? That you're entitled to be good now?"

Tenten thought about it a moment. "No. I'm good because I work for it, not because a Captain addressed my friends directly." She stopped to think, before adding, "Do you think you're entitled to be good because you're in class one?"

The woman cursed at her, just as the announcer told them to begin.

Tenten ran forward, deciding not to display Shunpo in the hopes that it might surprise her enemy. However, the enemy did not either, and the two of them met in the middle of the arena with a clash that literally shaped the landscape, cutting through a huge rock like it was nothing.

The young girl growled at the woman, pushing onto the blade with her sword and hoping to overpower her. Her reiatsu began to fluctuate against her will, forcing her to grit her teeth as he hands began to split apart at the seams.

She did not let go of the assault, pushing her blade forward once more and trying to solidify her reiatsu once more.

The woman tired of that, pushing off in a short burst of speed before calling out for a spell. The chant of Hainawa was only clear because of Naruto's frequent practice of it, and she cursed and used her top speed.

In that instant, everything in the world slowed down, and she popped off of several boulders, helping her trajectory as the opponent continued to chant, but in slow motion. She refused to get caught in that Kido.

She popped behind the woman, immediately allowing her sword to bite the flesh of the woman's lower back. She then twisted and kicked the wounded body into the sky, where she arced back down a few yards away, stunned at this turn of events.

In another, slower burst of speed, she flashed forward and knocked the blade from the opponent's hands, and then placed her sword tip against the neck of her opponent.

"Give up, or I'll make you give up."

The class one snob looked like she might argue with her, but Tenten forced the blade closer, actually allowing it to nick the skin of the woman's throat.

The woman caved, uneasily surrendering with a cursed frown.

* * *

Shikamaru stepped onto the arena, already knowing that his opponent was a guy from class one whose primary skill was Zanjutsu, secondary skill his Hoho. The announcer called out their names, and everyone was enraptured with excitement. The crowd had already heard of Captain Unohana's visit with Sakura Haruno, the girl who had performed medical Kido on her beaten opponent.

Naruto could not wait to see Shikamaru clean this idiot's clock.

"Begin!"

The class one student zipped toward Shikamaru, bouncing off of the boulders as he did, forming an almost triangle-like pattern around Shikamaru, who was not in a good position. The genius considered his options for a split second, before vanishing in a bit of Shunpo, the opponent not able to intercept him in the middle of the flash step.

Shikamaru watched from the trees, concealing his spiritual pressure and watching the idiot search for him. His white kosode was not even partially good camouflage, but he did not want to spoil his location by performing a concealing Bakudo.

He took a deep breath, his mind still watching the confused noble look around for him. He likely had only a few seconds to think, so he drew out several scenarios and drew his blade quietly from its holster on his back.

He took a deep breath, finding a break in the leaves and staring at it for a moment, finding the line of the sunlight with it. He traced it, thinking it to be a good match, and waited.

The noble jock from class one noticed him, and then shot forward with a Hoho-enhanced jump. Shikamaru twisted his outstretched sword, immediately catching the sunlight and shining it directly in the opponent's face. The jock was so blinded by the light in that moment that he lost track of where he was going, smacking into the trunk of a tree hard enough that it might have cracked a rib.

The crowd silenced, surprised completely by what just happened.

"Hmm. That actually worked."

He dropped to the ground, standing only a foot away from him as he began to chant.  **"Stop in the name of your god, kneel eternally at the feet of justice. Bind your hands in a fearful, never-ending prayer! Respect the authority of omnipotence! Bakudou Number One: Sai!"**

He was surprised that he was even able to chant the entire incantation, which immediately forced the man's hands behind his back, leaving the noble unable to move from his spot. He only had a few seconds to do it, so he kicked the man lightly in the face, being a bit rougher than Naruto had been earlier, when fighting his opponent.

The noble shot to the side, his body and mind entering unconsciousness. Shikamaru took a deep breath, taking in the moment and dropping to the base of the tree. The announcer called the match for him, but he didn't bother to get up right away. He took another moment, before Shunpo-ing back to the dugout.

Most of the students there had never seen anything like what he did, ingeniously reflecting the bright sunlight to blind his opponent. It was brilliant, literally brilliant.

"Shikamaru, did you cheat somehow?" asked Naruto, not entirely sure what had happened. "And way to copy my move from earlier, you asshole."

The genius rolled his eyes. "No, I didn't cheat or copy your moves. I used what resources were with me in a strategy that worked for me, all right?"

"Well, that was incredibly amazing," Sakura said with praise. "If you don't get some recognition for that from some kind of Captain like I did, let me be the first to tell you that it was amazing. That's practically like Unohana saying it herself."

Tenten laughed. "Sakura, don't let that go to your head."

"What do you mean? I can't help that Unohana noticed my skills."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes again. "Seriously, cut the ego act."

Sakura frowned, but it was more at herself than the others. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Won't happen again."

Naruto patted his roommate on the shoulder. "You said earlier that the captain's visit made us a target, right?"

"Right."

"Well, someone from class two just humiliated a noble from class one. And the person who did it was one of the people at the table that Unohana had personally visited," Naruto explained. "You've just pissed the rest of them off. Talk about a target now."

"Not to mention Tenten's performance from earlier," Samui said, turning to the brunette. "You forced someone from class one to surrender. Like I did, but I'm  _from_  class one. If you guys have done anything today, it's that you've made yourself noteworthy. Any nobles or advanced class students you face from now on are going to be hard as hell on you. It's not going to be cool."

Naruto wondered if it was really as bad as they thought it was. He thought it might all be exaggerated, in a way, to make a point.

But then he remembered Temari, the blonde girl from the advanced class who literally defeated her opponent in one move.

Assuming they both moved through the next round, Naruto would have to fight her.


	5. Reaching New Heights

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

_In a daze, he opened his eyes, a blurry landscape stretched before him. He could see what he suspected were trees, probably a large forest, but everything was just an unintelligible mix of greens and browns. If he focused hard enough, he could see a mixture of leaves, but trying to focus on discerning any details was almost painful and disorienting._

_But then, she appeared, as though emblazoned in orange light. A tall red-headed woman wearing a billowing white kimono embroidered with kanji that was too indiscernible to read. There were splotches of orange on the cuffs and ends of the kimono, and in her hand was something he couldn't see. Her hair was literally the color red, draped over her shoulders, and her petite face, pale skin, and bright blue eyes were simply the most beautiful he had ever seen. Interestingly, the end of the kimono blended into the background, blended into the ground like she were rooted to it like a plant._

_She smiled at him, soothing the uneasiness within him. But then she started to fade._

_He called out to her, wondering who she was. But it was over before he could hear a response._

His body was drenched with sweat as he awoke, his mind racing. Shikamaru was not awake, of course, but it was almost two in the morning. Nowhere near time to get up.

He got up, not bothering to put on a shirt, and headed to the bathroom down the hall, hoping to let all of this clear his head.

Who was that woman? Was that someone from his past? Was he remembering her life now?

He was determined to find out, but he had no idea. It was probably just a dream, probably didn't mean anything. He was certain that is what Shikamaru would say. But Momo would try to help him get to the bottom of it, if she could.

His body ached from the preliminaries and the first round fights, but it was nothing that he couldn't handle. It was really just exhaustion brought on by reiryoku stress, something that reiatsu caused on the joints. He took a deep breath as he opened the bathroom door. He rubbed his hands in the sink, cleaning them as he tried to think about what he would have to do tomorrow.

He had two fights coming up. Two fights if he managed to win the first. Naruto was confident, adamant that he would win the first, but the idea of facing Temari was something to be worried about. Samui had warned him at dinner the night before that her classmate was known to be calculating and ruthless. Even with that information, he knew it would be up to him to beat her.

He washed his face slowly, before looking at himself in the mirror. He thumbed the scar on his lip where a dummy hollow had split it, laughing at the fact that he had done it in the first place. The SRDI invented some interesting devices that got on his nerves so thoroughly. From the self-replicating, regenerating insectoid hollow on his first field exercise to a swarm of tiny, flying bee-like hollows with poisonous stingers; Naruto found himself cursing the scientists and Squad Twelve after each field exercise.

He gripped the porcelain sink, leaning over it a moment and rolling his shoulders to stretch them out. He turned to the mirror once more and stared at his blue eyes, pondering them a moment. His face scrunched up, trying to remember the details, but he was sure that the red-headed woman from his dream had the exact same eye color.

 _What the hell does that mean?_ He asked himself, not able to break his gaze with the mirror. They were the exact shade of blue, as shining and bright as the woman he had dreamt about. What could that possibly mean?

 _Did_  it mean anything? No one he knew had had a similar experience, so he could not get their advice for this. It made him nervous, dreaming about someone he had never met before. It probably was nothing, but it could be something.

He returned to bed, letting himself drift off to sleep. It took far too long, but once he did, he did not have the dream again.

* * *

Naruto returned after his victorious second round fight, his heart still racing. His opponent had put him through hell for a good three minutes with some kind of illusory Bakudo he had never heard of; he'll never look at a cat the same way again.

Thankfully, when Naruto figured out it was an illusion, he was able to break through the Kido by matching the reiatsu output and then surpassing it. He basically was pissed by that point, and used Sokatsui on the somewhat timid opponent. It was a direct hit, and the fight was stopped so that the medical team could treat him.

Naruto took a deep breath, calmed his nerves. After winning that fight, Temari was his opponent in the next round, which would be right after lunch later. He had several matches between now and then, and his friends were all going to fight soon.

"That was a bit overkill, don't you think?" asked Tenten, coming to sit beside him.

He shrugged. "Nah, I don't think so. We're allowed to use lethal force, right? And besides, I didn't use the incantation so it wasn't full power."

She snickered, agreeing with him. "Yeah, you got a point. Do you think anyone will use full force? Or if they should?"

"Yeah, we should use full force! I just knew that I didn't need full force to beat that guy."

Tenten paused, an odd look spread across her face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head suddenly, as though his question broke through whatever worrying she had. "Nothing, don't worry about it. Sakura should be up next, so let's watch!"

Sure enough, the pink-haired girl's second round match was up. She looked ready, for the most part, but she also looked a little bit nervous. The girl stepped onto the arena, walking over to meet her opponent. The wind ran through her hair, making it sway with the breeze.

"Does she look worried to you?" asked Tenten, biting her fingernails in almost a nervous habit.

"A little, but I don't know why she is. She's got some of the best Hakuda in this whole tournament, and her reiryoku control is top-notch. Her Kido is nothing to laugh at either. She's got no reason to be worried."

"Yeah, you're right, but she still shouldn't get overconfident. You never really know who you're facing until it starts."

Naruto knew that was true. Despite the fact that he watched the match in the first round where his last opponent fought, the guy had not used any kind of illusion against his opponent. He had used his sword mainly, but he managed to win. So apparently, any of these opponents could have anything hidden up his or her sleeves.

That made him uneasy for her, but he felt confident for her. He wanted all of his friends to do well.

Sakura stood across from a young-looking short girl with pixie-cut black hair and a pretty face.

"She doesn't look so tough," Naruto said. "She looks a little bit too girly if you ask me."

Tenten laughed. "Naruto, have you  _seen_  Sakura's hair? And what's wrong with being girly?"

The boy hesitated before frowning. "Okay, you have a point. Because she's nowhere near gir-." His eyes widened as Tenten looked at him accusingly.

"You better be glad she can't hear you," Tenten said, chuckling.

Naruto nodded, realizing his mistake. "Yeah. No kidding."

Sakura and the opponent exchanged words, but Naruto could not hear them. All he knew was that it was getting both girls worked up just by speaking to each other, and Naruto wondered if they were discussing Captain Unohana's personal visit the day before.

"Sakura Haruno, from class two, versus Ayako Sato, from class one!" the announcer shouted from the press box. "Begin!"

Ayako wasted no time, drawing her sword and whipping toward Sakura in a dash of Shunpo. Naruto could not follow the movement completely, but when that was over, Sakura had a cut on her left arm that was actually pretty bad, from his prospective.

"Why didn't she move!?" he exclaimed to no one in particular.

Sakura twirled on her front leg, pivoting into a powerful roundhouse kick. Her foot was fast enough with the boost of reiryoku that she clipped the opponent's hip. Ayako clumsily Shunpo'ed to the right, tripping over herself from the momentum of Sakura's kick and earning a face full of dirt.

Sakura took advantage and leaped into the air, hoping to end the battle with one good diving punch. She screeched in anger as she flooded her weaker fist with energy, hoping to literally destroy the girl. Ayako recovered from her stumble though, rolling over just in time for Sakura to slam her fist against the rocky field, the force literally cracking it for several yards.

Ayako turned on Sakura before she could get upright, hoping to swing her blade down and end this once and for all.

The pink-haired shinigami-to-be suddenly stood up, throwing up an arm and catching the powerful sword strike with the bare flesh of her forearm.

"Is she nuts?!"

Tenten was just as surprised, but then pointed to the battlefield. "Of course. Reiatsu advantage."

Ayako stumbled backwards as the force of her own blow was re-directed by a refined and concentrated reiatsu defense. Her hands were incredibly bloody, shocked that the girl before her managed to have her reiatsu strong enough, and controlled enough, to block the strike.

"Damn it!" Sato yelled, strengthening her grip on the sword.

Sakura looked at the slight cut on her forearm, cursing as it continued to gush blood. Along with the first cut, she was concerned enough, so she Shunpo'ed backwards to give herself enough time to use healing Kido. She activated the spell without incantation, holding her palm over both cuts and allowing both to close enough to stop bleeding and null the pain a bit. She forced the exhaustion that came from it to the back of her mind.

"So you can heal yourself too?" Ayako questioned, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Sakura nodded, finally drawing her blade. She Shunpo'ed toward the girl, swinging her sword but the other was a bit faster, able to dodge the strike and then counter-attack.

The pink-haired student caught the blade with her own, the clashing sound enough to catch anyone's attention. This time, the reiatsu was a bit mismatched and Sakura felt the effect on her bones, on her joints as the girl pushed the pure force she possessed onto Sakura's form.

"Damn it, Sakura, use your Kido!" Naruto yelled, knowing she was good enough with it that it would probably make a difference.

 **"Hado Number Thirty-one:"** Naruto was excited a moment as he heard the beginning of the spell's name, before he realized it wasn't Sakura.  **"Shakkaho!"**

The red sphere of light collided with the pink-haired shinigami from Ayako's exposed hand, hitting Sakura square in the abdomen and throwing her backwards.

"No!" Naruto shouted, with Tenten just as scared. Sakura hit the ground hard, skidded like a hockey puck, and landed at the base of a boulder. When the dust cloud cleared, she looked absolutely rough, the whole belly portion of her uniform open and a nasty burn exposed to the light.

Sakura raised a hand weakly and started to shout,  **"Bakudo Number Twel-"**

Ayako appeared over her, kicking her in the face and forcing her to stop her spell. "Oh, no you don't!"

Several attendants suddenly appeared on the field, a few of them fingering their zanpakuto, daring Sato to attack again. "The winner of this second round battle is Ayako Sato, from class one!"

The audience cheered, and Naruto and his friends watched in shock as Sakura was taken off the field by the medical unit. Tenten and Naruto stood up and were going to follow, but Professor Takashi stopped them. "The medical team does not need any visitors right now. That Sakura girl may get on my nerves, but I'm certain that she will be fine. I've seen people survive much more grave wounds than that."

Naruto made to protest, but the professor shook her head. "Seriously, child, you will only get in the way. You two sit down and enjoy the rest of the competition. I promise that I will come by and let you know when you can visit her."

Tenten took his arm and guided him back to his seat, just as upset about the results as he was. "It'll be all right. The professor did not seem worried, so I'm going to assume that she's right. Sakura will be fine."

"It's not every day that someone takes a point-blank range Shakkaho and lives to tell the tale though," Naruto said, still worried.

"You hit that kid earlier with an almost point-blank Sokatsui. And your spell was much more powerful than that Ayako girl's."

He frowned. "But this is different."

"Is it?" she asked, confusing Naruto even more.

He turned his attention to his thoughts, questioning and doubting himself once more. The next fight began, and Naruto was too wrapped up in himself to pay much attention.

* * *

The second round of fighting ended at about ten minutes until noon, and Tenten, Shikamaru, and Samui were all exhausted, but victorious. Samui was currently in the medical ward, being treated for a somewhat shallow cut on her thigh. Shikamaru and Tenten both managed to come out of their fights relatively unscathed.

The tent set up by the joint Kido Corps and Squad Four medical team was behind the bleachers on the northern side, and Naruto and his friends were all hoping to see Sakura. It was a bustle of activity, with robed Kido casters and shinigami moving in and out.

Naruto noticed how neither members of the Kido Corps nor of Squad Four looked to be heavy fighters, and from the feel of their reiatsu, most of them were very tame, controlled, and albeit weak. Much of Squad Four was filled with smaller, younger shinigami, a majority of them females. It was harder to make a judgment with the other medical staff, because they were all dressed from head to toe in heavy, ornate robes. He pondered it a bit longer but eventually, they were allowed inside.

The beds set up were mostly occupied, very few of them with serious injuries. Naruto had heard an interesting story about someone in the Trials many years ago getting their heads nearly cut off, and yet, the medical team was able to save them with quick work and Unohana's expertise.

He did not worry about Sakura after hearing that story, because if they can save a student from near decapitation, then they can probably heal a nasty burn.

When they arrived, Sakura was sitting up, conscious and looking much better; a Squad Four member was bandaging her wound with gauze, his hands glowing with a greenish blue light as he did. Naruto wished that he could erase her disappointment about losing, because even though she was nearly healed, she still looked upset.

"Hey, Sakura!" Tenten said adamantly. "Are you doing okay?"

"Yeah, I'm all right. A little sad, a little angry."

"Understandable," Samui commented from her own bed only a few feet away, her wound slowly healing under the guidance of a robed Kido Corps member. "But you shouldn't be upset. You did really well, for what it's worth."

Naruto nodded in agreement. "Definitely. You should have gone straight for Kido, but you did all right."

Sakura rolled her eyes, finally standing up now that the Squad Four healer was finished. She wobbled a bit, weak on her knees, but soon righted herself. "You're not  _exactly_  making me feel better, Naruto. Little mistakes make all the difference in the world."

"If you say so, but as long as you learn from them, that's all that matters," Shikamaru answered for him. "If anything like this happens again, you might know better what to do."

Sakura nodded, before looking at the clock. "Oh, you guys must be hungry. Let's go and get something to eat."

"Well, you should be good to go, but make sure you eat something that won't upset your stomach," explained the Squad Four shinigami. "Good luck for the rest of you!"

They all thanked her and left, heading to eat something before the third round. The pavilion was on the western side of the arena, and by the time they arrived, the line was dying down.

Once they all had meals, they found an empty table and Naruto ate as much as he could, still worrying about Temari. Shikamaru, Tenten, and Samui relived their round two matches with Sakura, explaining how each of them won using their best traits.

Naruto was not really listening, thinking over what he knew about Temari. She seemed to have a very analytical mind, not unlike Shikamaru or Toshiro. So far, he had several strategies based on her last two performances, and her main skill seemed to be her blistering speed. She was so fast that it almost looked like she never moved at all, definitely faster than him. And probably faster than Shikamaru, even though he and Naruto were much closer these days. He had several choices to make based on how the first move would play out, and it upset him to even think about.

"Naruto, what are you thinking about?" asked Tenten, finally having noticed his lack of input.

"Temari," he said, swallowing his bite of food and taking a sip of his drink.

Tenten frowned. "Oh."

"You guys got any ideas for her? I've come up with several of my own, but your input would help."

But they were out of time to share anything specific. The bell sounded out in the arena, warning them that they only had a few minutes to get situated back in the arena. Naruto's match was first, and unless he was able to get some ideas out of his friends on the way, he did not have much time.

"Welcome back!" the announcer said too enthusiastically for Naruto's tastes right now. He was confident to a degree, but his mind was cloudy and hazy. "The third round is about to begin, and the sixteen combatants are looking forward to the fight! Match one competitors, will you make your way to the field?"

Naruto took a deep, calming breath to try to relax before heading to the arena and nearing the center. Temari followed closely behind him, and he wasn't sure if it was just to show off, but she Shunpo'ed to her place on the field, earning a cheer from the class one fans.

"This exciting match is between Naruto, of class two!" The crowd shouted his name, and he thought he distinctly heard Tenten scream for him. "And Temari, of class one!"

The sandy blonde girl with the punk hairstyle and four pig-tails smirked at the other, spiky-headed blonde. The crowd was eating up the tension already between the two combatants.

Naruto tried to look back and memorize the output of Temari's reiatsu, thinking about its potency right at the beginning in the first match. Both in the first and second round, Temari had tried to finish the match in one burst of Shunpo, and he could use that pattern to his advantage.

"Begin!"

In the instant the announcer finished the last syllable, Temari blazed forward through the air, and Naruto quickly pulsed the reiatsu around his body. Temari appeared behind him, aiming for his spine, and the blade met its mark. He could almost feel her smirk, another one down.

But to her dismay, Naruto had used Sakura's strategy, creating a reiatsu defense that literally stopped the Shunpo-enhanced sword strike from behind. She tried again, but Naruto flipped around and met her sword with his own. Their blades were locked in conflict, his face only inches from hers.

"That was a lucky defense," she growled, not allowing him to gain any leverage nor the reiatsu advantage. "You won't be so lucky next time!"

She slid backwards, before using Shunpo to disappear from sight. Naruto still had a lock on her reiatsu though, and that was all he needed.

He turned and called forth Sokatsui without incantation. Temari's eyes widened and she dashed to the side, easily evading the blue sparking flames emitted from his hand. He did not let up, immediately firing a second and using a lead this time with her spirit energy locked-onto his radar. She was about to be engulfed by the bright blue blast of heat when she expelled her reiatsu defensively, dissipating the flames around her before the spell ended. "Nice try."

He Shunpo'ed forward, trying to overwhelm her with offense now. She gasped as he hit her weapon with enough force to force her back several feet, his spiritual pressure overwhelming her for the moment. He did not let up, swinging his sword again and again, and for several seconds, the only thing you could see where the sparks flying between them as they flashed around the battlefield. There was enough Shunpo on display that if any captains were watching, they would have to acknowledge their speed.

Shikamaru was amazed. "Wow. He's gotten much better than the little kid he was in year one."  _Still hasn't aged much though._

 **"Bakudo Number Four: Hainawa!"**  He threw out the yellow rope of energy that had become one of his chief techniques, despite its low-level. It did not find its target however, missing by mere feet, and Temari flashed forward with enough speed that he felt the blood spraying from a small nick on his collar bone.

He followed her with his own display of kendo, cutting into her side with a well-placed horizontal slash, but it was not enough to do any real damage.

 **"Hado Number One: Sho!"** A pulse of reiatsu followed from his finger, strong enough that it literally shoved her into the boulder behind her, breaking it apart and smashing her into the arena floor, only a few yards away from Sakura's divebomb punch debris.

Temari cursed as she tried to recover fast enough, Shunpo-ing to her right fast enough even while still laying on the ground to avoid his downward vertical slice.

**"Hado Number Thirty-two: Okasen!"**

The yellow blaze of light extended from his Asauchi blade, widening into an arc of energy that was too hard to avoid while going horizontally. In mid-attack, Temari blasted upward, using Hoho to stand on the air and jump to avoid the blast. Naruto supplied more reiryoku into it, diverting the Kido and channeling it upward, but even that was not enough. The dirty blonde vanished from sight again, stopping atop the boulder not fifteen feet away.

"You're good," she muttered, seemingly taking a break and not making any sudden moves. "Better than I would expect from class two garbage."

Naruto took offense to that, his anger rising. "Hey! Class two is not trash!"

Temari could only roll her eyes, and Naruto fell right into her trap of allowing his emotions to cloud his judgment. He rushed her, using a sloppy Shunpo and an overhead sword slash, and Temari could not help herself from taking full advantage.

She made a dash forwards and stuck out her sword, opening the flesh of Naruto's abdomen, despite his flimsy effort to defend it with reiatsu the last possible second.

He fell, the pain so much that he screamed.

* * *

_He looked up cautiously, something different about the area. His eyes widened when the landscape of his dream was suddenly back. He wondered for a moment if he were dead, angry that Temari had done him in at the Trials. But something told him that he was not dead._

_His surroundings were not blurry this time, but he was standing in the middle of a forest so thick with trees that he could not find a single break in the leaves to see what was behind them. The clearing he was standing in was the only clear area, but oddly enough, it was only clear at the base of the forest floor, before the trees seemed to bend impossibly at an angle so it was like he was surrounded in a dome. Despite the fact that he literally could not see the sky, it was not dark. It was as though the entire place was as naturally as radiant as possible, like he was surrounded by light from all sides._

_The constant breeze was pleasant, not too warm and not too hot. He tried to enjoy the feeling of the strange atmosphere, but he felt a sense of fear and urgency that was inexplicable. And yet, he did not want to leave._

_That's when the woman appeared, the same woman from his dream. Her shimmering white cloak, her body somehow connected to the forest floor like roots, and her bright red hair. The kanji was readable to him now, reading out the word for "whirlpool" for some reason. She had seemingly materialized from nowhere, her beauty as radiant as Naruto remembered. He smiled as he saw her, her matching blue eyes crinkled when she saw him._

_"Am I dead? Again?"_

_The woman shook her head. "No. I'm no angel, little Naruto. Your time is not up." She thought for a moment and added, "Well, your second amount of allotted time is not up."_

_He chuckled a moment, for some reason feeling completely carefree around her, like he wanted to just be comforted here. "Well then, where am I? And who are you?"_

_"This is your inner world, Naruto," she said, letting him work out the details for a moment. "I have been a part of since the day you were born."_

_His eyes widened. "Then you're my zanpakuto!" He was ecstatic, realizing that he was not dead after all and that he had made a connection to his blade. "What's your name?"_

_She seemed upset for a moment, which confused him completely. "Do not be confused, young one. I am someone you have not had the opportunity to know, but I have always known you. And I cannot tell you my name until you do one thing for me."_

_The cryptic talk did not assuage his confusion, but he accepted that and moved on. "What's that?"_

_"Embrace me, little one. Give me a hug."_

_He was confused, yet again. "Wait. What?"_

_"All you must do before I tell you my name is for you to give me a single hug. I have been waiting for this moment for as long as I have existed in this form, and you should not keep me waiting any longer."_

_He peered at her, not sure why he was being cautious. She was his zanpakuto spirit! He should be excited!_

_He walked over to her and raised his arms. The moment he was about to enclose her body, she vanished and appeared again several feet away._

_He frowned, hurrying over to her and trying to hug her again. She vanished once more, seemingly melting into the forest floor and sprouting again like a plant away from him._

_He tried once more, running to her and trying to catch her, but once again, she slipped from his grasp before he could even touch her._

_"Stop moving already! Let me hug you!"_

_He ran at her once more, but yet again, she was out of his reach._

_He pondered it a moment, instead of trying the same tactic. He remembered something that Professor Takashi had said about jinzen and obtaining shikai. There was usually a test or a task involved, and more often than not, it was not as simple to complete as you initially thought._

_"So it's a puzzle," he muttered with realization. "Where's Shikamaru when you need him?"_

_The woman brightened up when she noticed his thought process, and she wanted so desperately to tell him the secret. "Think it through, little one."_

_Her hope in that moment was dashed as he tried yet again to force it, Hoho-rushing her, but even that proved to be ineffective. She simply slipped away faster._

_He cursed himself, and she wanted to reprimand him for the language but kept her mouth firmly shut._

_For several more minutes, Naruto tried more clever ways of getting to her, but she dashed his efforts again and again. Even when he tried to use a Bakudo on her, the spell simply dissipated into oblivion before it even reached her._

_"Gosh, all this for a hug!"_

_"If you do not wish to have my power yet, you may choose to wait. That will also cause you to lose the match to your opponent, a class one snob. You would not wish for this to happen, right?"_

_He shook his head adamantly. "No! Of course not! Why don't you hug me, if you want one so badly?"_

_She looked at him in confusion, before the smile suddenly stretched across her face. She walked toward him, the rooted-cloak moving with her. Her bright smile was enough to make Naruto melt._

_The zanpakuto embraced its wielder, and Naruto noted that it was the most comforting feeling in the world._

* * *

Temari watched with pride as the boy fell to his knees, his mind in a daze and probably unconscious. She gestured to the announcer. "You should probably end the match and give him some medical attention. I clearly won."

But everyone gasped suddenly, even the announcer over the loudspeaker. The boy had visible orange reiatsu pouring from his body as he regained consciousness, the pressure overwhelming on Temari and everyone in the audience. He touched the sword tip to the ground in front of him at a forty-five degree angle.

_**"Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!"** _

The Asauchi sword vibrantly began to glow with orange-white light, transforming into the shikai state he had been working toward for so long. When the light cleared, and the overwhelming pressure of his reiatsu began to die down, the spectators and Temari could focus on the new form.

It was an arm bracer strapped to his left arm, the steel surface covered in an ornate black and brown design. At the end of the bracer, sitting over his fist, was a dagger about nine inches long and glinting in the sunlight, and two pronged areas extending from it. It was black and silver, the black design starting with a rounded portion at the start of the blade, continuing down until it stopped about three inches from the tip. In the center of the rounded portion at the start of the blade was a large, circular area that was filled with orange energy from his reiatsu; there were two more orange pools, one a medium size and one small, continuing down the dagger in the midst of the black portion. The two edges of the dagger were silver, and both looked extremely sharp.

"Shit," Temari deadpanned, groaning. "Of course I would have to fight the one guy from class two who is worth a damn."

Naruto grinned, instinctively knowing how to use at least part of its power, a gift from Kusaritane herself, he assumed. He put his left hand on the crook of his elbow and aimed the bracer and dagger toward her. On cue, the pronged dagger suddenly launched at her with a shocking amount of speed, connected by a shimmering chain made of what looked like wooden links.

Temari tried to dodge it by evading to the right, hoping it would only fire straight, but Naruto used his reiryoku to guide it, the chain turning and stabbing into her collarbone as she tried to escape.

"Damn it!" she shouted, Shunpo-ing backwards in the hopes that the dagger would hit the end of his range; it did hit the end of his range, about forty yards give or take. The crowd was captivated, watching the match more closely now than ever before as Naruto retracted the chain with a simple tug on his right arm. "That's an interesting weapon you've got there. It won't be enough though, as long as I stay out of range."

Naruto eyed her, thinking. "C'mon, Temari. You're smarter than that." He used his speed to shoot forward, aiming at her in the same moment. He fired the chained dagger in the middle of the flash step, the speed increase probably enough to kill her if he aimed lethally. Instead, the dagger turned, the chain wrapping around her right leg and then locking with one of the prongs into one of the links. He yanked hard as he finished his Shunpo behind her, pulling her off her feet and to the ground several yards away.

He did not retract it, but Temari was still able to recover, angry now. She tried to stand, trying to force her way out of it, but Naruto simply yanked her again, knocking her into the ground once more. She angrily grabbed her sword, hacking at the exposed chain with her weapon.

"That's not normal wood, you know," he said, smirking. "That's definitely as dense as steel."

She screamed, angry she was not able to overcome him. "I'll just hack through it!"

"I'll just counter it," he muttered, running his reiatsu through the chain-links in a defensive move that might not have worked if Temari was more calm, because of her fluttering mental state. She was desperate to win, and it was clouding her judgment. Which was an interesting turn around, if Naruto remembered correctly, that Temari had tried to anger him earlier and mess with his head.

While she was trying desperately to slice through the chain and escape, he decided to end the match on his terms.

**"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Number Thirty-one: Shakkaho!"**

The red blast of energy shot from his hand, heading straight for her body. She finally forced herself to her feet, fast enough that she escaped the brunt of the attack, but the splashing explosion of the energy rocketed her backwards. The chain hit its full length though when she was rocketed back by that explosion. Naruto was prepared though, standing his ground and pulling the chain toward him the moment the chain snapped tight.

Temari suddenly found herself flying the rest of the way in the opposite direction, and she skidded across the ground like some kind of abused animal on a leash.

He was surprised she was still conscious, so he began to chant another spell to finish her off when he was interrupted.

"Stop!" The match was over, as soon as the medical team arrived, each ready to defend Temari in case Naruto did not stop. He dispelled the spell easily, unhooked the dagger from its chain link with a simple movement of his hand, and retracted the blade. His shikai sealed away, this time sealing into his unique sealed state that looked like a wakizashi short blade with an orange hilt and a brown, wooden guard shaped like a spiral, the sheathe black. He slid it onto the Asauchi's normal place on his back, the sealed zanpakuto hilt pointed toward his right shoulder.

Naruto felt the sting of pain, however, on his stomach, and he looked down uneasily. There was blood almost pouring from his uniform.

"The winner of the match is Naruto, from class two!" the announcer yelled, everyone cheering and in shock.

The audience was awestruck, clapping loudly for his success as both Naruto and Temari were carted off the field for medical attention. Naruto had received a few minor injuries and the major cut above his waist, but Temari was much worse off. He gave her a sorrowful look, watching her react in pain to pretty much every movement the medical team made.

As soon as he was laid on a hospital bed, the Squad Four member began his healing the cut on his stomach, still bleeding and open. For some reason though, the healer gasped and Naruto weakly asked what was wrong. But he got his answer as the wound re-opened from the healer's efforts, causing him to lose consciousness once more.

* * *

When he awoke the next time, it was clearly nighttime and most of the other patients were gone. He leaned up in his bed to look around, but the effort immediately caused a burst of pain from his body.

"No, you shouldn't move very much," someone said beside him. He turned to see the Squad Four member who had started to heal him earlier sitting there, happy to see him awake.

"What happened?"

"The stress of your spiritual pressure on your body after activating your shikai sort of closed your wound at the end of the fight, but when you released your shikai and your reiatsu calmed again, the wound started to reopen the moment I began to treat it, and you lost consciousness from the added stress," she explained. "The wound actually turned out to be much worse than I expected. You won the fight, but you won't be able to recover fast enough to fight in the next round."

"What?" he exclaimed, the pain stinging a little bit more from the effort. "No, I want to keep going!"

She shook her head, her light brown hair swaying in the wind. "I'm sorry, but it's pretty much an order from Captain Unohana not to let you try."

He frowned. Part of him wanted to fight that order, but how would that make him look in the midst of all this? Part of the Trials is just to make a good impression on the spectators, especially the spectators from the three branches of the Seireitei military. If he defied the order and did something stupid, he'd look like an insubordinate fool in front of his potential employers.

"How bad  _was_  the damage?"

"Well, the tip of Temari's sword pierced your stomach minutely enough that the stomach acid basically influenced your other organs. It was not a bad puncture wound, but it was difficult to operate on without literal surgery," the healer explained, holding up a Kido-enhanced glowing scalpel for good measure. "Now, the muscle damage is bad enough from having to get through it to operate on the puncture wound that any kind of movement is going to inhibit your ability to fight, and you could easily force the suture open again if you are not careful."

He frowned. "Oh." He remembered the story about the near decapitation. "So you can save a guy from nearly getting his head cut off, but you can't mend the tiny wound?"

"Don't patronize me," the healer said, apparently not taking the attitude at all. "That man was healed by a combination of Captain Unohana's zanpakutou, the Kido Corps, and almost every high seated officer in Squad Four. And even after all that, the man was not able to fight for several weeks, if not months after the fact, because it took quite a long time and quite a lot of physical therapy to mend the nerve damage from his spinal cord. Kido and Captain Unohana's zanpakuto are great, but they could only go so far." She paused, letting him think that over for a moment. "And you had me and a couple of other attendants, while the Captain and the Lieutenant operated on some of the more wounded combatants than yourself, including your opponent Temari."

The healer's reprimanding tone had made him feel about two inches tall, and he felt like receding into himself. "Oh. Um... sorry. I didn't know."

She nodded, before sighing slowly and deliberately. "It's all right. It's just been a long, stressful day, and you caught me at a bad mood."

He smiled, trying to cheer her up. "It's all right. No big deal. I probably deserved that for being a smartass." He chuckled lightly, getting her to smile enough that it made him feel much better about all of it. "How about my friends? Did they, um, win?"

"You mean- oh, God, what was her name?- Sakura, I think?" the healer asked, "and the people who were with her?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, that's right."

She stood up from the stool beside her, adjusting the pink nurse-like uniform of the unseated officers who work in the hospital relief station of Squad Four. "I'll fetch them. They've been hanging around outside pretty much all day waiting to see you." She looked at a clock lying on a cart near the door. "It's almost one in the morning, so they've been here for quite some time."

Naruto waited anxiously to see them as the healer headed out the tent flaps, before coming back in only a few moments later, dragging Sakura, Tenten, Samui, and Shikamaru with her.

He grinned as he saw them, hoping to hear all the details of who is facing whom tomorrow and how the rest of the matches went earlier. He was genuinely glad to see them, and knowing they had waited so long after the end of the third round was a humbling experience.

They all greeted him, and the healer stepped away to work on another patient. "How are you feeling?" Sakura asked, holding her palm over the bandaged area and making it glow with the light of a healing Kido. "They patched you up quite nicely, but it's still very bruised and unstable. There's not much more healing Kido can do, sadly. It looks like it might have to heal on its own now."

Naruto nodded, having already learned that through his nurse.

"Well, you turned up better than Temari," Shikamaru said, gesturing to an empty bed. "She had to be carried to the hospital at the Squad Four barracks earlier. They called it 'severe bruising and trauma' on pretty much every part of her body."

"Nothing that she can't pull through though," Sakura assured him, smiling. "How do you feel about not getting to fight in the rest of the tournament?"

"It sucks," he muttered honestly. "I get this amazingly cool shikai and zanpakutou," he gestured to the wakizashi sitting on the stand next to him, "but I can't even use it. And Hinamori and Toshiro weren't even here to see it."

"They're probably busy investigating still," Tenten muttered, keeping her voice down low so no shinigami could hear her talking about sensitive shinigami matters.

Samui gestured to the bandage wrapped around her shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I lost earlier." The blonde frowned.

"And I surrendered," Shikamaru said, and Naruto's eyes widened with shock.

"What? You  _gave up?!_  Why?!"

He made a gesture like he was fighting a much larger opponent. "Sometimes, when you see how skilled the opponent is, you have to do a tactical retreat to save your own skin."

"Who were you fighting?"

"The most skilled fighter in all of class one, Akira Toriyama," he said. "The damn guy was massive and looked ferocious. I started to fight him, used the most powerful Bakudo I knew to try to eliminate him quickly, but he broke through it with sheer force." He shrugged as though it was obvious. "I dodged him as he tried to use this advanced Hakuda move he called Sokotsu, and both his fists ended up totally destroying an entire boulder. At that point, I knew I didn't have anything that I could do to stop him from pummeling me to the ground so I just gave up. Saved me the trouble."

"What about you, Tenten? Did you win?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, the girl I faced wasn't even strong, unlike you guys. But... knowing I will probably face this Toriyama guy if I win the next match is making me totally depressed. I don't even know if I'll make it out of there alive, shikai or not."

She said it so low that no one caught it but Naruto.

"Shikai?"

Everyone stared at her with disbelief. "When did that happen?" asked Shikamaru.

"Um... a couple weeks ago," she said nervously. "I haven't wanted to make a big deal about it because you guys seemed to be having trouble with yours, and I've been trying not to tell anyone in case it was useful in the Trials for no one to know.

"But," she exclaimed, her voice level rising as she looked at the wounded blonde boy, "then Naruto stole my thunder!"

* * *

The semi-finals of the tournament had arrived, and Naruto was thankfully well enough to walk around and enjoy the matches. It sucked that he and Temari had pretty much tied, whether it was declared he won or not. They both weren't able to advance, and that sucked tremendously. Thankfully, they were both in much better health than they had been the other day, even though Temari was still at the hospital relief station deeper in the Seireitei.

Tenten was the only shinigami-to-be from Naruto's group of friends left in the competition, and Naruto was pissed that he could not be with her. If Tenten managed to defeat her opponent, Akira Toriyama, she would be in the finals and then might be able to win it all.

Tenten's match came soon after the other semi-finals match was over, a rousing battle where Ayako Sato got her ass whipped. Now the finals were occupied by someone of noble blood from class one, and the other semi-finals spot remained open.

The announcer called for the two opponents, and when Naruto saw Toriyama and compared him to the size of Tenten, he suddenly realized that Shikamaru had probably been right to forfeit.

The merit of class two was on the line here, and if Tenten managed to go to the finals, it would be the first time that had happened in twelve years. She had a secret weapon, something that not even her closest friends had seen, so if she managed to use it and get lucky, she could beat this brute.

Naruto went over strategies of how he could have beaten the guy using his base abilities, and how he could have beaten the guy with his shikai. He probably was not strong enough to yank such a large, muscular target around like he had Temari, but maybe he could separate Toriyama from his sword or bind an arm or something. Speed was probably his downfall, and Temari was fast enough that it might make a difference.

The fight began, and the brute did not even bother drawing his sword. He just rushed the smaller girl with his fists, not even rushing to use Shunpo or even a simpler Hoho move. He just rushed the girl, Hakuda his chosen method of offense, and his sheer body mass and overwhelming reiatsu enough to make a huge impact on almost any target.

Tenten used her speed, popping behind him and cutting his calf, trying to eliminate one of his legs. But his reiatsu made it like trying to cut through steel, and she only managed to nick him. She was swift enough to dodge the ensuing swing around to try to grab her, and then she slashed at his wrist, this time drawing blood from a slightly deeper cut.

It wouldn't do, however, the guy bellowing something unintelligible at her from this distance. Tenten smirked from his exclamation.

**"Transform, Yukai Datsu!"**

Immediately, Tenten's blade, which he realized must not be an Asauchi anymore but had no defining characteristics of a sealed state blade, seemingly melted into a pile of metallic goo with a hunter green flash of light, leaving only the hilt behind. She waved the hilt over it and a dozen spinning shuriken took shape from the liquid metal.

She smiled as she flicked her hilt, sending the shuriken spinning into the enemy. All of them managed to hit her mark, cutting into the body of Toriyama but not even managing to cause much of an impact.

She cursed that even those wounds could not slow him down, Shunpo-ing out of the way of an enraged reiatsu-powered punch. The shuriken melted, immediately returning to the liquid floating in mid-air in front of her. She made another movement with her hilt, creating a large mace. She grabbed the bludgeoning weapon, used Shunpo to flash into the perfect position, and then she slammed the mace onto the man's skull. The audience grimaced at the use of deadly force like that, but Naruto knew it would not have killed a brute like this. When Tenten flashed out of the way, the man was barely bleeding over his eye.

She morphed her weapon again, this time creating a spear, using her speed to find just the right angle, and stabbing into the man's chest just above the soul sleep hidden beneath his rib cage.

"That's the definition of versatility," Shikamaru commented.

Naruto nodded, agreeing with him in awe. "She can make pretty much any weapon out of that. But it doesn't have any kind of special abilities to take down this sucker, and she is terrible at Kido."

"As long as she keeps up her speed and keeps attacking with different weapon types to keep him guessing, I think it'll be all right for her," Sakura thought, probably being optimistic. "She is doing damage to him, but that's like flies trying to blow up a tank."

The spear thrust did not do anything to him, so she liquefied her shikai again before creating a blade that was basically almost ten feet long and way too thick for her to even be able to carry, shocking most of the crowd.

She readied the blade, pouring energy into it until it glowed with green light. The sword met Toriyama's now drawn sword, but Tenten managed to catch him off guard and without time to react. The reiatsu-enhanced super-sword cut through the Asauchi of the enemy, cutting it into two clean pieces and enraging Toriyama once more.

Tenten evaded the man's counter-attack, this time trying to fade out of sight before he punched her in the face. So  _he could use Shunpo after all?_  Naruto wondered.  _It's really, really slow though._

She morphed the extremely long blade into a whip with several hooked points, and then used the whip to once again change her battle style. She cracked the weapon at the man's neck, pricking the skin and forcing Akira to cry out, grab the whip, and yank her towards him.

She let the whip melt away in his fingertips, knowing that she would have baited him. The melted goo formed around the empty hilt in her hand, before becoming a pure, rectangular war hammer almost larger than him. She enhanced it with her reiatsu, giving it a green aura, before slamming it down on the man's head, the weight enough to probably take down an elephant.

The ensuing dust cloud obscured her vision of him for a moment, and she took several deep breaths trying to calm down and let herself catch a break. She transformed her giant war hammer back into a sword, forming around the hilt much more slowly than before. She was nearly out of reiryoku, her energy spent doing all the zipping around. She once again wished that she had Naruto's natural endurance and stamina.

The man bellowed suddenly, shot out of the dust cloud, grabbed the girl around the middle, and shoved her against the ground unnecessary force. She was so damned exhausted that she could not even try to put up a decent fight, and she lost consciousness so fast that she did not stand a chance. Her zanpakuto glowed green a moment before flickering back into the sealed state.

But even though it was over, and even though several shinigami flooded the field the moment they knew it was over, Toriyama did not let her go, squeezing so hard that Naruto was afraid something was going to happen to her. He felt like crying out, flexing his killing intent toward Toriyama, who was only somewhat affected. "Stop it!" he yelled, and the crowd was going nuts.

The guy was berserk with rage, obviously upset at his Asauchi being broken and being so humiliatingly defeated so many times. Naruto couldn't take it anymore, so he stood against his better wishes, against the pain of his stomach, and began to chant a high level Bakudo in the hopes that he could save her. He had never attempted a spell this high, but as he began the incantation, he felt like it would work.  **"Bakudo Number Sixt-"**

Something flared on the edge of everyone's spiritual radar, an intense pressure to powerful that Toriyama literally dropped to his knees and then fell unconscious, releasing Tenten's own knocked-out body in the process.

In a dash of Shunpo, a woman with a singular braid of black hair stretching down her front, wearing a captain's white haori appeared. Captain Unohana released Minazuki without a single word, Naruto was shocked to see Unohana's shikai in full form so close. It looked like a giant pale green sting-ray, and it literally scooped Tenten into its mouth without further ado.

"Do not worry," she said with a calm expression that was so forcefully kind that it was literally unsettling. "She will be fine. I will see to that." She turned to the other members of the medical unit. "Take care of Akira Toriyama as well. I destroyed his soul sleep and booster with my reiatsu; he was so powerful that he was a liability, a possibly dangerous force if not dealt with. If anyone should see retribution from the Central 46 for these matters, I shall take full responsibility."

And with that, she disappeared, her zanpakuto vanishing from sight with her, Tenten in its maw.

"What just happened?" asked Naruto, confused. "Did she eliminate his reiryoku?"

Sakura nodded, stunned and in awe. "She nerfed him completely with only her presence..."

No one could concentrate on the battle, the battle that had just decided the finals completely; the crowd was in a state of shock truthfully. Tenten had been put out of commission, Akira no longer had any spiritual powers to speak of, and there was no one left to fight the noble in the finals.

There was a whole ceremony after things calmed down to declare the victor, but Naruto and his friends did not even stay. He, Shikamaru, Samui, and Sakura found the nurse from Squad Four who had treated his wounds at the relief tent.

The nurse seemed to already know what was happening, and without warning, Lieutenant Kotetsu appeared. She smiled brightly, her lavender hair short and vibrant. "I thought you'd show up. The captain wished for me to escort you to the hospital in our barracks. If you will hurry, we'll try to get there as soon as possible."

* * *

The day of graduation was finally there. Things had calmed down considerably for everyone once Tenten got out of the hospital. Two years later, and no major events to report had occurred since. Naruto was just glad that it was almost time for him to graduate, but he wished he had a say in what squad he joined. He knew he did not wish to join the Stealth Force or the Kido Corps, but the Thirteen Court Guard Squads had to decide where each graduate goes.

Naruto was dressed in his most pressed uniform, glad that he would not have to wear the uniform after today. He had gotten quite tired of the same old thing for six years, and he knew it was time for a change.

He chose to not wear his usual headband to graduation, even though it would be a good moment to do so. He wanted to be respectful of the honor he was receiving.

Sakura, Shikamaru, Samui, and Tenten were all gathered in their positions. Tenten gave him a happy look, and Naruto knew deep down that she had never gotten quite used to not having a left arm. They had had to amputate it to save it, but Unohana had tried her best.

Naruto joined the four of them in line, looking out over the crowd gathered around the auditorium. He spotted the signature silver hair, and he smiled brightly; both Hinamori and Hitsugaya were there!

He waved at them and they waved back, glad to see him although Toshiro was considerably less so; at least outwardly. The Sixth Seat of Squad Ten still held many brat-like qualities that caused Naruto a lot of annoyance overall.

Squad One Lieutenant Sasakibe ended up performing the ceremony, much like five years ago at Momo and Toshiro's graduation. He greeted them, gave a speech about all the Thirteen Court Guard Squad officers who were present; some of them Naruto recognized, but there were others he had not met or heard of.

Once the festivities actually began, the line started to move up. He was nervous, nervous to hear of his squad placement and the people he might be working with forever. If it was someone that he did not like, what would he do? Apply for a transfer? He thought from his Academy studies that there was a process for that, but he could not remember the exact steps to do that.

So it was irrelevant to him.

"Samui, of Squad Nine!"

Naruto and the others cheered as the blonde-headed girl walked up onto stage and received her diploma, bowed to them, and then headed back to her seat.

More names were called, Naruto getting more and more anxious for the right squad.

"Sakura Haruno, of Squad Four!"

That made sense. She was best at healing, but she had some offensive capabilities too that Naruto could not shake a finger at. The pink-haired shinigami walked toward the stage, took her diploma from the Lieutenant, and then bowed to him and everyone else, before retaking her seat.

"Shikamaru Nara, of Squad Eight!"

He thought about it and then shrugged, glad that he had not gotten something he had not wanted. He too received his diploma and returned to his seat.

"Temari, of Squad Three!"

The dirty-blonde woman headed up the stairs and then back down again, diploma in hand. More names were called, including Ayako Sato who ended up in Squad Seven.

"Tenten, of Squad Eleven!"

Naruto pondered that for a moment, thinking that her base skills were essentially strictly swordplay, but was her shikai ability not a Kido ability? He wondered for several more minutes before realizing that it did not matter much to them. She had a weapon, she was good at using it, and it did not have a super-powerful ability. It literally could just turn into several different weapons, controlling the volume, density, and mass of each weapon. He could see why the fabled, most powerful combat division wanted her attention.

The one-armed girl bowed, took the diploma, and gladly accepted the offer, heading back to her seat in happiness. She would get to fight to her heart's content, whenever a threat came up. Whether or not that was good remained to be seen, but she could be excited about it. And she would let nothing interfere with that, not even her own disability.

Finally, Naruto was certain it was about to be his turn.

"Naruto Uzumaki, of Squad Thirteen!"

He walked up on autopilot, his mind automatically going through every detail he could remember about it. Captain was Jushiro Ukitake, Lieutenant was Kaien Shiba. Hinamori knew someone from there named Rukia Kuchiki, because they had been in the same year of the Academy. That was all he could think of right now, but he was certain that if gave himself a more calm moment than walking up the stage to get his diploma, he could probably remember more details about it.

The Squad One Lieutenant handed him his diploma, the paper feeling very, very good in his fingertips. He took a deep breath, thinking really hard about everything he had been through. Waking up in Hokutan so long ago, no knowing where and only having a first name to go by. Now he had a makeshift clan name, courtesy of his zanpakuto, but he still had no memory of his past life. He had met very many good friends, had passed with good grades, and had achieved his zanpakuto's shikai. He was more than happy with his squad placement, and he was certain that all of his other friends felt good about their placements as well.

He bowed to the lieutenant, looking at the ornately decorated diploma once more, before turning to scan the crowd as he walked off stage. His eyes first scanned over Toshiro's, and the boy just smiled in amusement, probably over the funny look on his face if he had to guess. And then he found Momo. She was crying, watching him graduate and glad that she had jumpstarted his journey to this point, even if it had taken him a while to start that journey.

Now, he was here. At this moment. About to step out into the world of the shinigami. And he could not be more proud of his friends, his family, and himself.

He took the final step off of stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kusaritane is loosely translated to "Seed Chain."
> 
> Yukai Datsu is loosely translated to "Melting Dart." Basically, her powers are derived from her use of weapons in the canon and her ability to warp "space" in order to seal away the weapons in her scrolls. Basically, she can give her weapons more mass and density, changing its volume as well, allowing her to create any kind of weapon whenever she wishes.


	6. Crossing the Scaffold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

"Is it time?"

The scream tore into the night, the sound of blood dripping the only other noise. A bright blue and green light was emitted from the body, then soaked into the sword like the very soul was stolen. The man knew that was not far from the truth.

The empty husk of a shinigami was lying against a tree, the zanpakuto only inches away from reach. The man unremorsefully pulled the giant sword from the death god, the glow continuing lightly even after it was finished.

"You're the wrong person to be asking about time, Giriko," the man said with a slight chuckle, resting the flat of the sword against his shoulder. "Of course it's time."

He turned to see the dark skinned twelve-year-old girl, staring at the shinigami with a disgusted look on her face. The man knew she obviously did not want to be here, did not want to be doing this, but the power was too tempting to ignore.

The sword began to shine with green light again, and he moved in one motion and slashed through both of his two companions. The girl still flinched as his sword made nigh intangible contact with her body, leaving behind a rush of power that made her feel more complete, more alive than ever before. It was like an addicting drug, and even though she did not like the situation, she could not say no. She could not avoid its beckoning call.

"Jackie, you know you're needed, don't you?" asked the man.

The girl looked at him in confusion. "Yes. I... my loyalty is with you, Ginjo."

"Good," the man, Ginjo, said with a sadistic smile. She may have only been very young, but she was powerful. Very powerful. When it came to pure force, she had the potential to be nearly unstoppable.

Giriko, the middle-aged man with an eye patch, checked his pocket watch yet again. Kugo turned to him, eyeing the man as he checked the focus of his powers almost obsessively.

"Is there something wrong?"

The man shook his head. "No, Kugo, everything will be ready when the time comes. It always is, whether we wish it or not."

"Have you made the contract yet?"

"Yes. The contract has been prepared, the energy needed to activate it has been provided. It will go into effect the moment that the Senkaimon opens."

Jackie was confused a little bit about the specifics of their plan, about what that would actually do. "Are you sure they'll come?"

Kugo nodded, running his hand over his shihakusho. "Yes. They'll come. I worked with them for years. I know their inner-workings like the back of my hand, despite never working on one of their squads directly." He gestured to the dead body of the shinigami, which had slowly began to disappear into tiny particles of reishi, flaking off with a glimmer of blue light. "It's only a matter of time before they appear. I suspect they know it is me; they'll be monitoring me now." He removed the badge from the guard of his sword, pointing to it. "Won't be long now."

Jackie nodded, understanding. She wished that she did not have to be here, but the idea of testing this new power of hers, beyond the training she had been getting from Kugo himself, was enticing. It was something that she could not ignore anymore. She had to know just how powerful that she was.

In fact, they all did.

They all wanted to know how powerful they were.

And how powerful they  _could_  become.

* * *

The blonde-headed shinigami shook himself out of his trance, staring blankly at the desk in front of him. It seemed foreign to him, even after all this time. He even had a name plate running along the side of the desk, the kanji for his name stretching across it.

_Fourth-Seat Naruto Uzumaki._

It felt good to be so high up on the totem pole. The paperwork sucked, but he didn't let that bother him. Especially when he had both Kiyone and Sentaro practically following him around like lost puppy dogs, doing exactly what he said. He had asked them several times why they felt the need to do all this for him, but the two Sixth-Seat officers seemed to just need to do his work for him. Who was he to argue? If they wanted to impress the captain, he figured why not let them take some of the load off of him.

"Uzumaki!" a voice said, getting his attention. Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Sentaro headed into the room, carrying a stack of reports from various missions, including Squad Thirteen's financial records for the past two months. "I have the paperwork you ordered!"

"I didn't order you to do it," he corrected. "You took it upon yourself." He took the stack from the older man, who gladly smiled.

"You'll put in a good word for Captain Ukitake, right?"

The blonde smiled. "Of course. I always do, Kotsubaki." Naruto was not sure if he was being completely honest, but he let the more impressionable shinigami think that he was.

Just then, Kiyone popped her head into the room, her own arm filled with files. "Oh, here you go, sir!" She glared at the other man. "You beat me, didn't you?"

Naruto took the files from her, a few reports from some unseated shinigami stationed in the World of the Living. "It's not a competition, Kiyone. You both know that."

All of their superiors had been saying that to them for years, but they both seemed to be after Captain Ukitake's approval so much that it went in one ear and out the other.

"Of course I beat you! I always do things faster than you!"

"Yeah, at half the quality!"

"Yeah, right! I had more paperwork than you, and I still finished faster!"

"I think you just proved my point."

"Shut up!"

The two bickering shinigami disappeared from Naruto's cubicle, still yelling at each other as they passed.

"I'm surprised that they haven't destroyed half the property by now."

He looked up to see Third-Seat Miyako Shiba standing above him, her soft black hair always in the right place. Standing beside her was the short black-haired Rukia Kuchiki, Miyako's personal shadow. "They never stop. No matter how much time goes by, they are always in some stupid competition."

The woman laughed. "You're right there. But is it wrong to try to win your superior's favor?"

He shrugged. "I don't know if it's wrong, but when they are so close in strength and work ethic, you'd think they'd have given up by now. Or fought to see who is really better."

"Hell, with our luck, they'd tie," Miyako said with a chuckle. Naruto and Rukia both joined her. "D'you have anything to turn in?"

He turned over some of the reports that he'd been working on, her taking them off his hands. "Any missions?" Naruto was always ready to head out and do some scouting in the Rukongai and the World of the Living, the idea of sitting around at a desk all the time not too fun. He liked to be proactive, or at least, more physically proactive.

"I don't think so," Miyako said, thinking it over. She looked to Rukia. "Have you heard of anything?"

The young Kuchiki shook her head. "Um, no I don't think so."

Naruto cursed. "Crap. I'm getting a little bit bored around here."

"Be careful what you wish for," Miyako said, laughing as she walked away, Rukia at her heels.

The blonde only had a few more minutes before he was off of office duty, so he waited it out patiently, absently flipping through some notes he had written. He looked around, wondering if Kaien was here somewhere. Maybe he or even the captain himself had a mission that Naruto could do.

The lieutenant was nowhere to be seen, so Naruto started a quick search for the Shiba's reiatsu. He frowned when he realized that Kaien was out of range, probably either on the other side of the Seireitei or on a mission of his own outside of the city.

"That sucks," he muttered.

Naruto turned on his heels and headed toward the captain's quarters, Ukitake on one of his sick spells. Every few days, Ukitake was bedridden, unable to perform his duties so Kaien often had to take over. Naruto at least knew where to find the captain though.

"Uzumaki, it's good to see you," the white-haired man said as the blonde bowed to him from outside the doors. "Come on in!"

"You sure you feel up for it?" he asked, not wanting to stress his superior's health.

"Of course!" Naruto pushed the sliding door open, closing it as he entered. "Is there something that you needed?"

"Not me specifically, no," he muttered. "I was just wondering if you had heard anything about a mission or something big going on. A really challenging scouting trip or maybe a dangerous hollow."

Ukitake tapped his lip, wondering for a moment. "No, I do not think so. We have sever-"

Just then, the two of them suddenly turned to the outside, a familiar reiatsu pinging on their radars. A black and red butterfly flew into the room from the open window, heading straight for Ukitake. Naruto curiously studied his captain's expression, watching it change from curiosity to shock.

The stress of the mysterious message, whatever it was, was enough to set off Ukitake's illness. He coughed loudly, hard enough that a very subtle amount of spiritual pressure vibrated through the soles of Naruto's sandals.

"Captain!" he shouted, hurrying over to comfort him. "What's wrong?"

The man coughed again, this time into a tissue that Naruto offered him. The contrast of red against the white material was not unusual, but it always worried everyone in Squad Thirteen to see it.

The butterfly fluttered around their heads, and Naruto wished he could hear the message himself that was obviously enough to make a captain stressed. The Hell Butterflies were very person-specific on the details they spread.

"Something... something from Squad Twelve...," he muttered, coughing again into another tissue. Naruto rubbed the man's back comfortingly. "They... they found him."

"Found who? Who did Squad Twelve find?"

* * *

Fifth Seat Hinamori noticed the disturbance, feeling the unique energy of the Hell Butterfly approaching. She would normally think that it was not a huge deal, but the pressure from it seemed... drastic. Thick. Very serious. Almost... grave.

Momo decided she had to know what it was, so she hurried down the hall of the barracks, hoping to find him in the office. The brown-haired captain had a look of surprise on his face, his eyes widening beneath the rims of his glasses.

"Captain Aizen, is something wrong?" she asked, as the Hell Butterfly retreated through the window.

The man pondered it for a moment, and she could not predict the man's thought pattern. His kind eyes were almost worried, and he turned to his Fifth Seat. "It seems that the SRDI has located someone that has been avoiding us for far too long. It should not be a problem to deal with him, so I sent a response. I'm sending you to deal with this."

She furrowed her brow. "Me? What about Lieutenan-"

"Currently indisposed, and the others as well," the man said with a smile, putting his hand on her shoulder. She instinctively tensed, before remembering who it was and relaxing; if her captain noticed, he paid it no mind. "Squad Ten and Squad Thirteen are putting together their own response teams, led by Lieutenant Hitsugaya. Squad Twelve suspects that the murder suspect we've been chasing for far too long now has finally come to light."

"They found him? How do they know he was connected to the murder from so long ago?" asked Hinamori, confused. "Who is he anyway?"

The captain looked at her with a small, sincere smile. It seemed noticeably grim, and she wondered if she could cheer him up somehow. "Kugo Ginjo is a human that we once trusted. He was caught trying to take another's power for his own, but he managed to get away and went into hiding. I've suspected that he was involved with these murders, because the crime seemed to fit his first altercation."

Momo looked at him quizzically. "Human? How does a human get involved with this spiritual business? I don't understand..."

"How is not important, Momo. What's important is that this man is going to kill again, and again, and again, if he is not stopped," Aizen said, serious enough that it worried Momo.

It was not like him to be so worked up. Why was he letting this Ginjo man get under his skin? Was he personally affected by one of the deaths that Ginjo had caused? Was he angry? Was he... scared?

 _Scared? Captain Aizen?_  Momo wondered. _He can't be scared of_ a  _human._

_Can he?_

* * *

Someone ruffled his hair, and a vein bulged in his head as he crossed his arms. He opened his mouth to retort the coming insult, before it even arrived, but he was too late.

"Hey, shorty! How's it going?!"

He frowned even harder than before. He gulped, not letting the anger show on his face.

"Captain Shiba."

The thinly bearded man turned to him and said, "Why'd you gotta be so formal all the time? You're a little boy; little boys aren't supposed to be uptight! You should run along and play!"

Toshiro rolled his eyes to Isshin Shiba's eccentricities, but maintained his cool. The man  _was_ his superior after all. "What did you want, Captain? I'm busy preparing to go after the potential murder suspect."

Isshin nodded, brightly smiling. His thumb fingered the blood-colored hilt of his zanpakuto, Engetsu. "Ah, yeah. I remember." His face turned from playful to serious in less than a second, but the silver-haired lieutenant was used to the captain's mood changes by now. "Be careful out there. The man you're going after, if we are correct, is powerful. Maybe more than a lieutenant can handle, but the others do not think so. I would go with you myself, for that very reason, but Head Captain Yamamoto has forbidden any captains from pursuing the assailant."

"Why? If captain-level strength is necessary, then shouldn-"

Isshin shook his head. "Check your report again, Hitsugaya. The fundamental aspects of Kugo's strange abilities are documented pretty well there. Squad Twelve Captain Kurotsuchi has theorized that the man's ability is not unlike a Quincy."

Toshiro's eyes widened. How could he have missed that information? He flipped through the report on his desk, scanning the lengthy paragraphs and bits of evidence pointing to Kugo's involvement. "Oh. So this unique human ability that he possessed, even before receiving shinigami powers, allows him to absorb the abilities of shinigami, transferring them to himself." He paused, looking at the captain with realization. "Of course! The Seireitei cannot afford sending a captain in the event that Kugo can steal their power."

"You got it! His potential is what makes him lieutenant-level, not his actual abilities." Isshin ruffled Toshiro's hair again, and the boy's fists clenched in utter annoyance.

"Would you cut that out?"

"Aww... does the little boy need a nap?"

Toshiro turned to see the newcomer, the curvy blonde woman walking into the room. "Shut up, Matsumoto."

Isshin laughed as the two of them continued to bicker, the layabout Third Seat a tad bit drunk from her frequent drinking of sake. "No need to worry about this mission, Toshiro. I promise that everything will turn out okay."

The boy was surprised a little about how sincere he sounded, and he could only nod, more assuredly now.

* * *

The joint mission of Squad Ten and Squad Thirteen met at a certain point near the Western gate into Rukongai, ready to head to the World of the Living. The reiatsu signature of this mysterious Kugo had not changed positions, so they were certain they could theoretically activate a Senkaimon near where the coordinates were located. The SRDI was monitoring the situation very closely, ready to inform them of any changes if need be.

Naruto, and the contingent of six unseated Squad Ten members under his command, arrived only a few moments late. Still, Toshiro had to tease him about being late, and Naruto could only scowl.

Squad Ten was only sending three, not including Toshiro. Naruto could not tell what seat they were from here, but he imagined that they might have been unseated, judging by the feel of their reiatsu. Naruto wondered why the orders were to send so many people up against one guy, but he could only question orders occasionally. He'd leave decisions like this up to the tactical-minded guys, like Shikamaru.

He was pleasantly surprised, however, when he noticed Momo was among the group heading to the World of the Living, but there were no members of Squad Five with her.

"Hey, Momo!" Naruto greeted, grinning.

The woman smiled. "Hello, Naruto! I was hoping to see you here. I knew Lil'Shiro was leading the mission, but I was not sure if you were coming along with Squad Ten."

"Why are you here anyway?" he asked, curious.

Toshiro joined them. "Good question. Did Captain Aizen send you?"

She nodded. "Yes, my captain thought it best if I tagged along."

"Why did he not send some backup from Squad Five too?" asked Naruto.

"He thought a smaller force would be better," she explained, knowing a little of the particulars of Kugo's abilities. "We should probably get moving though, right?"

Toshiro nodded, heading to the front of the assembled group. Naruto stood in front of the members of Squad Ten, crossing his arms to mentally prepare himself for the fight. He thought it was weird that he was chosen to lead; it was not the first time, but this mission seemed to have a different feel than the other missions he has led in the past. More dangerous somehow.

He thought back to his conversation with Ukitake earlier and wondered if it was smart to wish for a break in the tedium. He supposed he got what he wished.

"All right, we'll be heading through the Senkaimon in just a moment," Lieutenant Hitsugaya began. "But first, we need to go over some quick details. Avoid contact with the enemy's blade, at all costs. If he stabs you, you'll die. And your death will only serve to make him stronger, making it harder for the rest of us." His frank and to the point leadership skills were a little unsettling to some of the others here, more so for Squad Thirteen than his own squad.

Naruto looked to Hinamori, standing at his side. "That was... cold."

"No kidding," she muttered.

Toshiro made a few last remarks wishing them all luck, before drawing Hyourinmaru and twisting it in the air. "Senkaimon... Open!"

The shining paneled doors appeared, before sliding open and revealing a bright white expanse beyond. Naruto took a last minute readying breath, before pressing forward with the rest of the team.

* * *

Kugo felt the disturbance in the air above the swamp the moment that it happened, and he smiled. The Senkaimon began to materialize, and he snapped a look at Giriko.

The man nodded, the pocket watch in his palm beginning to glow with bright green light. Numbers made of that same bright light emanated from it as the contract activated, surrounding the Senkaimon.

There was a bright flash of light as the entire entrance was sealed and held open from Giriko's Fullbring. Kugo smiled, however, when the secondary effect initiated. Blocking those with considerably more power.

Nine shinigami spilled from the opening, the green barrier-like energy disorienting them. However, there were three more shinigami locked inside the Senkaimon, and a blonde boy hit the green energy with his fists, unable to pass through.

Kugo knew they were rank and file shinigami, fodder for guys like him. Jackie was on edge, her powers not activated but her boots submerged in the muk of the swamp. Kugo wanted to send the young girl a reassuring smirk, but by this point, the shinigami on this side of the sealed Senkaimon had recovered from their surprise.

Ginjo did not even give them time to attack. He rushed them, holding his large blade and slashing through three enemies on the first strike. Green energy ebbed and flowed from the blade, absorbing power from each wound he inflicted. The six that remained tried to regroup, making a circle to cover all angles. Kugo heard orders from the inside of the portal to the other side, but they were useless tactics. He was far beyond the league of these shinigami.

He used Bringer Light to flash through the misshapen circle, cutting into the shoulder of one enemy, stabbing through the stomach of another, and completely bifurcating a third. The last three were so shocked as the blood from their friends and allies mixed with the murky swamp, tainting it with crimson red.

One of them fired a Kido he didn't recognize, trying to hit him with a bubble of green fire. He powered through it with one swing of his Cross of Scaffold, the energy spinning outward and hitting the shinigami's last two allies. He stabbed through them both in a burst of speed, his entire body glowing with emerald energy by this point.

He smirked at the last one, the Kido user. He chanted another spell, using the full incantation and trying to overwhelm him with power. "That's not going to work on me."

He forced all of his spiritual pressure in front of him, forming a bubble of protective force that completely neutralized the Sokatsui, enveloping the birch tree behind him in blue fire. Kugo blasted forward, snapping the last enemy's neck with the flat of his blade.

He stopped, took a deep breath at the carnage around him and relished in the energy flowing within him. The power was incredible, a huge dosage of combined energy from all nine unseated shinigami. He almost did not want to share it, but he walked calmly up to both of his allies and stabbed through them too, this time pushing the excess power into them.

Giriko was almost brimming with visible power, some of it running through his hands and the pocket watch. It was an amazing feeling. Completely incredible. "You think you could have ended them a bit quicker? I only have so much more time before the Senkaimon seal bursts. I could use a breather before the next fight, you know?"

Kugo rolled his eyes. "The contract was for six minutes. We've still got well over that."

* * *

Naruto slashed at the closed opening with his zanpakuto, cursing and his blood boiling. How could one man do this... this carnage? This was awful! "Murderous bastard!" He attacked the green force field covering the exit once more, trying to avenge the lives of his men.

Momo was in shock, tears rolling down her face. She had never witnessed this before. She had never seen anything like it, and it scared him.  _Was this why Aizen seemed so scared earlier?_  she wondered.

"God damn it!" Toshiro said, his usually calm exterior breaking at the thought of that much death and destruction. His mission was falling apart at the seams, his men were dead, Naruto's men were dead, and these guys were even more powerful than before. Toshiro did not think he had enough power to deal with this man, but a combined assault from he, Naruto and Momo might could end him.

The blonde screeched, his mind only on one thing: get through that damn wall. He began to chant, his words echoing as he began the Kido.  **"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Number Thirty-One: Shakkaho!"**

The full-powered Kido blasted against the green sealed entrance, the pure force causing it to stretch almost like a ball hitting a piece of rubber. When the force of the red and white fireball did not dissipate upon hitting it, Naruto's eyes widened.

**"Bakudo Number Thirty-Nine: Enkosen!"**

A barrier of condensed reiatsu, shaped almost like a spinning fan of white light, generated from the center of his two palms. It blocked the major force of the impact and shoved the three shinigami backward from just the extra force.

"You idiot," Toshiro said when everything had dissipated, uncovering his face.

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that the Kido would be reflected?"

"I don't know, but assessing the situation would have been a good thing to do instead of blowing us up!"

"Well, while you were sitting there doing nothing,  _assessing the situation,_  I was trying to help our friends! Who are now dead!" Naruto shouted back.

Toshiro had leveled a reply in his mind, but Momo shook her head. "Stop fighting! Let's think about what to do!" She could not stand it when she saw her two closest friends arguing in a situation like this.

They did not have much time to think. The green seal suddenly broke away, and Naruto was the first to notice. Impulsively, he Shunpo'd forward, wakizashi in hand. Toshiro did not even have time to tell him not to go, and he and Momo both followed him.

Kugo blocked Naruto's strike with the flat of his blade. "Interesting. You are a step up from the others, very strong."

"Why did you do this, you bastard!?" he shouted, unlocking their weapons and then swinging again, but Kugo impossibly moved his huge sword to block it.

"Power," he muttered, as though it were obvious. "Revenge."

"I'll show you revenge!" he shouted, using Shunpo to try to flash around the man and take him out in one hit, but the man vanished using Bringer Light and dodged the strike.

He cursed, his mind immediately turning to Kido. He was not sure if it would work, based on the prior performance of the unseated Squad Ten member, but he began the spell nonetheless.  **"Hado Number Sixty-three: Raikoho!"** Yellow energy sparked in his palm, gathered into a great sphere, and then fired in the next instant, a giant thunderbolt shooting parallel to the earth. Kugo did not power through it this time, evading the strike by shooting his body to the sky, green light marking his path. The powerful spell cut a swath through the forest around the swamp, probably going almost three hundred yards before stopping.

* * *

Momo saw the opportunity Naruto's strike provided, preparing to launch a specific dual Kido to try to capture and then eradicate Ginjo. She prepared the chant, but as she did, something flashed in her peripheral vision and she instinctively flash-stepped backwards.

The dark-skinned teenager had kicked at her, enough oppressive force that it might have completely destroyed her if she had not moved from the position. Jackie touched down, her clothing having changed upon activation of her powers. The most prominent changes were her large, mid-thigh length black boots, covered in the mud of the swamp. A white scarf-like bandanna extended from the cap on her forehead.

The young girl sped forward again, but Momo was more prepared. She drew her zanpakuto and threw it up to block, thankfully knocking the powerful kick away with the help of her reiatsu.

"Who are you? Why are you with this dangerous man?"

The Fullbringer did not answer Momo's question, instead flashing forward with another burst of speed and kneeing Hinamori in the stomach. She coughed as she was shot backward, doubling over from the impact.

* * *

"Momo!" Toshiro yelled, drawing his zanpakuto and shooting in the sky toward her. However, he felt a mysterious energy attack shooting for him, and he only barely dodged the green number four shooting toward him like an arrow. It exploded against a tree, instantly incinerating it in bright green flames.

Giriko, the source of the numerical attack, stood before him, several numbers hovering around his body, circling him and daring him to attack.

"Tell me who you are!" Toshiro shouted, gripping his sword with both arms.

"My name is Giriko Kutsuzawa," the man said amiably. "Might I ask who you are?"

"Toshiro Hitsugaya, Lieutenant of Squad Ten." The silver-haired shinigami sped towards his opponent, readying himself for whatever kind of attack this man could use. The number one fluctuated in the air, and Toshiro tightened the grip on his blade.

He swung, but the number one suddenly lengthened, hitting his sword and halting it for exactly one second. Giriko used Bringer Light to flash out of the way, and Toshiro's attack continued just after that.

"You froze my attack?"

Giriko could only smirk, the numbers still flowing around him. "Inhibited it. My abilities allow me to make certain timers, allowing me to impede your attack. Among other things, of course."

Toshiro leaped into the air, dodging a numerical attack from a number seven that behaved strangely like a boomerang. He threw up his blade and blocked the reverse attack, catching the shining green energy on it and swinging it back at Giriko.

The man dodged it easily, the attack exploding on the surface of the swampy ground with the force of a small grenade.

* * *

Feeling Toshiro and Momo's spiritual pressures fluctuating, Naruto clashed with Kugo's sword once more, the two of them trying to push off of one another and get the upper-hand. Kugo's sheer force was terrifyingly strong, enough that Naruto was having considerable trouble. He wondered if he would have had as much trouble before Kugo powered himself up with the low-ranked members of their team.

"You're not going to possibly win," Ginjo muttered, the two of them glaring at each other before flashing and clashing again, neither able to create an opening. "I'll get through your guard and kill you." He paused in his speech a moment. "No, I think I'll keep you alive and kill the girl first. Force you to watch as the life is drained from her body. How does that sound?"

Naruto's anger bubbled over, the idea of this man touching a single hair on Hinamori's scalp disgusting. The blonde already wanted to rush over and help Momo in her fight, but after the initial trouble, she seemed to be doing much better.

"You're not going to touch her," he muttered.  **"Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!"**

His reiatsu flooded the area, getting everyone's attention for a brief moment. His wakizashi transformed into the shikai state, his powers feeling very alive and very open. He did not have to hold back against this man, and he would do everything in his power to ensure that he destroyed him utterly for everything that he had done.

He raised the arm launcher, extending the chain as quickly as possible with a mental command. Kugo's eyes widened as the dagger headed straight for him, and he used Bringer Light to try to get out of its range.

Naruto smirked, flicking his arm up and changing the chain's direction. The weapon snagged on the man's ankle, and Naruto forced the weapon to stop extending and retract. Kugo's enhanced speed proved to be a disadvantage, his entire body hitting the bottom of the swamp with an impact that nearly created a tidal wave of mud.

He did not stop there, his anger flooding his entire being. He snaked the chained dagger back to him, dragging Kugo's still-recovering body along the ground as he did.

Ginjo twisted his upper body, swinging his sword horizontally in Naruto's direction. The shinigami's eyes widened, and he used Shunpo to get out of the way, releasing his chain in the same instant and returning it to the arm bracer.

Kugo stood, rubbing his mouth and spitting onto the ground. He took something from his coat pocket, a strange five-sided object. Naruto could not see all the details, but Kugo placed it on the guard of his huge blade and energy poured from it.

Instantly, Kugo was enveloped in light until his street-clothing changed into the uniform of a shinigami. A black, standard shihakusho. His sword did not change, but the reiatsu pouring from his body frightened Naruto enough that he had to be ready.

"You're not the only one with a shikai," the man muttered, instantly confusing the shinigami. "Mine is not exactly the same formula, but here it is."

"What? I don't understand..." Naruto said, before deciding that he just did not care. He swung his right arm, releasing the chained dagger once more at a very fast speed.

* * *

Toshiro had sensed Naruto's shikai and a similar discharge of reiatsu from the enemy, and he cursed at the possibility of Naruto being outmatched. He made a quick dodge, spinning out of the way of a spinning number five and then using Hoho to enhance his movements. He dashed toward the enemy, his sword in tow.

Giriko did not show any emotion, raising his arm in defense. The numbers swirled around him, and Toshiro had learned enough about the man's time defense to know the inner workings. He decided on a strategy that might work.

He raised his hand and fired an incantation-less Shakkaho. The blast was powerful and Giriko's number three flew in front and created another "timer." Toshiro did not stop, however, realizing that the Kido would have been the target of his immobilizing timers, since they were not connected to him.

Toshiro sped to the side, moving fast enough into Giriko's right side where he had his blindspot and fired another Shakkaho.

The number four moved to intercept, and Giriko held both Kido in an immobilized state, preparing to get out of the way.

Toshiro knew it. He instantly fired several more shots from several angles, numbers flying and stopping every strike with various different timed freezes. When he was certain that the twelfth one was in place, he instantly called on his zanpakuto.

**"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!"**

His sword changed shape, growing in length and gaining a chain with a crescent-shaped pendant along the end of the hilt, not unlike Naruto's.

He swung the sword downward, calling on its hidden power and releasing the avatar of his zanpakuto, a dragon made of ice. It snaked through the air rapidly, smashing against the area where Giriko should have stood.

When it finally faded, Toshiro landed and saw that his work had succeeded. "How's that for a time-freeze?" Toshiro said under his breath, the Fullbringer completely encased in ice and the kido faded inside.

In his own way, he wished that Matsumoto were here. She could have made fun of him for saying that stupid, corny line.

* * *

Momo blocked another high-speed leg with the flat of her blade, before knocking the girl away once more.

"The more you knock me down, the more powerful I will become!" Jackie yelled, emerging from the mud, her boots covered completely. She raced forward again.

 **"Bakudo Number Thirty-nine: Enkosen!"**  The spiraling shield of energy appeared before her, blocking the strike but the force still sent Hinamori backwards into a tree. Her shoulder hit painfully against the bark, and she nearly dropped her sword from the impact.

Jackie made to move again, but Momo jumped into the air with Shunpo at the last second. Jackie's ensuing kick snapped the entire oak tree down, before she followed into the air after her.

**"Snap, Tobiume!"**

Her sword changed shape with a flash of red light, instantly becoming like a silver pronged branch of a tree. Jackie's shock spread across her face as she continued her ascent, but Hinamori was past the point of having reservations. These bastards had killed her allies, and she was not going to stand for it.

She screamed the name of her zanpakuto, a red flame gathered at the end of her sword. She swung it quickly, the fireball diving toward the enemy like a comet of destruction.

Jackie spun through the air, rehearsing the move in her mind before actually making it. Her foot hit the fireball, her spiritual pressure expanding outward and redirecting the fiery attack toward her opponent.

Momo absorbed the blast with her sword, before firing another blast. She dropped to the ground quickly, Shunpo-ing across the swampy water, and firing another attack at the exposed back of her enemy.

Jackie's eyes widened, but she quickly kicked outwards with both feet, a mid-air split. The two comets were knocked-backwards, only the base of her boots being harmed by the fire.

"Keep sending the heat all you want," she said. "My Dirty Boots will keep getting stronger, each time I kick your attacks out of the way."

Momo suddenly snapped her fingers. A yellow spark flew from her fingertips, spreading quickly to the sky and surrounding the enemy. Instantly, the area around the Fullbringer exploded with a bright white light, smoke filling the sky and a shockwave flooding the area.

Jackie fell through the smoke cloud and to the ground, unconscious and burned badly. Momo took a deep breath, glad that the fight was over. She had used a lot of reiatsu setting up her dual Kido as silently as possible, and if she had been fighting against someone more experienced, they might have seen through her masked chanting.

She turned her eyes to the sky, watching as Kugo and Naruto continued their battle. She thought very hard about joining them, but from the feel of their reiatsu, she was not sure she was on par with either of them, shikai or no.

She felt rather helpless.

* * *

Ginjo raised his sword and blocked the dagger, the reiatsu flowing from his supposedly-human body in waves. The chain went slack, but Naruto knew what to do. He waved his right arm around in a circle, the dagger following his movements.

The dagger spun, latching onto Kugo's sword and binding it completely. The wooden links looked almost like a vine, trying to hold the sword in place. Then Naruto yanked, and with one fluid motion, the sword went flying. He released it quickly, before spreading his influence over his zanpakutou once more and sending it at the weaponless enemy.

Kugo cursed, evading the first strike easily. Naruto made the blade change directions in mid air, circling around and stabbing into the man's shoulder. Kugo screeched, ripped himself free of it, and then headed right at Naruto with a twisted expression on his face.

 _Is this guy serious?_  He wondered.

The young shinigami quickly moved out of the way, retracting his dagger. He threw up his left hand and chanted,  **"Bakudo Number Sixty-two: Hyapporankan!"**

A rod of violet colored energy appeared in his left hand, and he hurled it like a spear. It split as it sped through the air, disintegrating into several thinner projectiles. Due to Kugo's straight charge at him, the Kido managed to hit its mark, hitting Kugo in several places and pinning him to the ground about ten yards away.

Naruto released the breath he was not even aware he was holding, watching the man with disgust and hatred. The bodies of the dead were all around them, floating in the muck of the swamp. Some had already begun to deteriorate into spirit particles, but most of them were dull and lifeless.

"Damn you." Kugo spat blood at the ground, his hands held in place by the long rods of energy. Blood poured around all the places where Naruto's Kido had hit him. "You're pretty good. Thought I could rush you, since your chain takes a couple of seconds to retract."

"Weaponless?" asked Naruto incredulously. "You're lucky I haven't killed you yet."

"Yet?" asked Kugo, confused. But then realization suddenly came to his mind. "You know, I've seen you before. You were a little Academy runt back then, took a piece of my uniform."

"So you're the bastard I thought I felt," he muttered. "I should have chased after you back then and killed you. You wouldn't have had a chance to hurt me or any of my friends."

"You should take the chance you have now," Kugo began, making a slight gesture with his hand. Naruto did not notice the movement, but he felt a spiritual pressure emitting from his body. "Too late."

His mind reacted faster than his body. Kugo's giant sword telekinetically slashed through Naruto's hip, flying fast straight in Kugo's direction. A quick downward invisible slash freed Ginjo from Naruto's Kido, but the wounds were still prevalent all over his body.

The blonde was not sure how Kugo managed, but the sadistic murdered stood up, holding the sword at his side.

"What the hell are you?" Naruto asked, holding the cut on his leg with his left hand and his right arm held out defensively. The dagger glowed lightly with orange light, and Naruto knew it was time.

"I'm Kugo Ginjo, former Substitute Shinigami of the Soul Society," the man declared, gesturing to the addition he had made to his sword earlier, right before he transformed into a shinigami. "I don't particularly care who you are. And right after your friends are dead, they won't be able to care either."

Kugo flashed through the air, using a variant of Shunpo to vanish from sight. Naruto could do nothing fast enough to defend them, watching helplessly as the man sped toward Momo.

"No!" he screamed, as the shining green sword swung downward.

Naruto had to shield his eyes as smoke billowed from the clash he had not expected, not sure who or what was actually happening. He expelled his reiatsu like a pulsing wind, pushing the smoke away to reveal that Toshiro had parried Kugo's strike, but there was a long gash running diagonally down his body from the effort.

"Toshiro!" Naruto yelled, forcing himself to his feet.

_**It is time. Defend your honor. Defend your friends.** _

With the mental urging from Kusaritane, he raised his arm and immediately launched the dagger toward the enemy. "Get out of the way!"

The orange energy in the dagger began to swirl, spinning faster and faster and faster until the three orbs began to look like spiraling vortexes. He made a spinning motion with his wrist, mentally commanding the blade to spin rapidly in place, until the entire area of the blade looked like an elongated mass of vibrant energy.

Kugo only turned long enough to see Naruto's attack approach. Toshiro jumped away and fled from the area with Momo.

**"Rasentane!"**

The attack collided with the enemy, hitting Kugo's chest. Naruto yanked and retracted the blade, but the energy stayed behind, embedded in Kugo's screaming body. It swirled rapidly, almost like a vortex, ripping away bone and muscle as though it were nothing. Tendrils of orange light spread from the sphere of energy in a spiral shape, cutting through his body almost like roots.

Then it exploded, orange energy spiraling into the air for probably fifteen feet, snaking and blooming like a sprouting seed. The sound seemed loud enough to attract anyone on the planet with a spiritually sensitive ear. Naruto had to shield his eyes from the bright orange and yellow light, still not used to the attack despite having learned it months ago.

When it faded, the only thing left from the effort was Kugo's giant sword, sticking from the muck like a tombstone. The badge fell off of the sword, sinking into the swamp.

He dropped to the ground, both physical and emotional exhaustion filling his mind and body. The wound on his hip was still bleeding, and he was very shoddy with healing Kido. He could not really concentrate on anything or anyone, his mind too wrapped up with what had actually happened.

Had... had he killed a man?

Killed a human?

Ended a life?

Kugo had ended nine lives, several of them his friends and coworkers.

But was it worth killing him?

Something snapped his reverie, the appearance of someone at his side. He vaguely realized that it was Momo, but the image of Kugo's twisted face... His evil smirk... It would haunt him, haunt him forever.

"Naruto!" she exclaimed, touching the wound underneath the gap in his shihakusho. Naruto's Shikai vanished, resealing in a wakizashi and lying on the ground. He was too scattered to sheathe it, the calming effect of her presence doing almost nothing.

He wanted to ask how Toshiro was, how she was. If she was okay. But his exhaustion seemed to catch up to him, and his surroundings grew dark and faded entirely.

* * *

"... and that was when he moved his castle into checkmate! I've never beaten the kid once!" exclaimed a familiar voice.

The white-haired man palmed the device in his hand, not really listening to his closest friend's story.

"You're thinking about Ginjo, aren't you?"

Ukitake turned to see Kyoraku's concerned frown. The white-haired captain nodded.

"I can't... can't help it. I was the only reason he even had powers in the first place, and now he's gone. If he hadn't... hadn't gotten so power-hungry, he never would have committed those crimes and he'd be alive again, out there somewhere."

"Jushiro, you know he had that Fullbring of his long before you came along," Shunsui said. "Literally before he was born."

Ukitake gave him a deadpan look, and Shunsui conceded his point. "Yeah, I know what you mean. Our choices can't change, no matter how much we wish we could go back and change the past. I can think of plenty of things that I wish I could change."

"You've never given an insane man with hollow-like powers the knowledge of the supernatural," Ukitake said with a grimace, coughing lightly. Shunsui peered at him with concern, but the old captain waved it off.

"Maybe not. But I don't fret over the past."

"You're too lazy to do that."

"Fair enough." The flamboyant captain chuckled. "Look. Stop worrying about Ginjo and start worrying about your subordinates. They lost quite a few friends, and Uzumaki is still recuperating with Squad Four. You need to be there for them and stop fretting over what used to be. Think about what is and what will be, for the future of your squad."

Ukitake nodded, knowing that his friend was hardly ever wrong. "You're right. How's Squad Ten handling it? Have you visited with them?"

Shunsui shook his head. "I haven't heard anything. And you should know by now that I'll always come for you first." The man gave him a smile, causing Jushiro to laugh. "You want me to check on them?"

Ukitake smiled, shaking his head. "No, that's all right. I'll check with Isshin later."

* * *

Sakura closed the door to Naruto's room, looking up to see all of their friends in the waiting room. Shikamaru looked bored and ready to fall asleep, Samui was waiting rather patiently and calmly. Tenten was staring at the reflection of her sword as she slowly polished it, the movements of her recently repaired arm slightly shaky. Temari had a partially annoyed expression on her face, and Sakura could only wonder why; she thought that Temari had gotten over her grudge a long time ago. Toshiro's entire torso was bandaged and he looked like he would still be in pain, but Unohana had overseen his injuries herself. Momo was rocking herself back and forth, chewing on her fingernails impatiently.

The pink-haired Fourth Seat watched everyone realize she had entered the waiting room, and they all headed right for her. A thousand questions jumped out at her at once, and she had to rub the bridge of her nose and wave at them all to get them to calm down.

"He's doing much better today than yesterday," explained Sakura. "He should be awake by the start of the funerals tomorrow."

"Can we see him?" asked Momo.

Sakura shook her head, yawning. "Not right now. The best thing for you guys to do is get some rest. Especially you, Lieutenant."

The silver-haired shinigami waved her comment off. "Yeah, yeah, Fourth Seat."

Sakura chuckled. "Well I could always make sure that Third Seat Matsumoto knows you are supposed to be resting. I'm sure she can think of a few things to make you tired."

Toshiro's eyes widened with shock, earning quite a few laughs from the others. "Even you, Haruno, are not that evil."

"I wouldn't test me."

Slowly, one by one, they all left to return to their respective barracks. Momo was the only one who stayed with Sakura, who was supposed to do another check up on him after another two hours. The medical specialist finally got up to do it, but Momo called out for her.

"Sakura, I was wondering... Could you let me visit with him while you're checking on him? I'll be very quiet and be out of your way, and I'll leave when you do. I promise!"

When she saw the sincere expression on Hinamori's face, Sakura could not resist.

"All right. Come on."

The two girls sleepily headed into Naruto's sick bay, and Hinamori wanted to cry just seeing him like this. Sakura watched her, frowning at the emotions across her face, but she turned toward the unconscious blonde and started her check up routine.

Momo stood on the other side of the bed, watching the boy's unconscious form. The tears started to well, and fell without even meaning to. She was not even sure why she had started to cry; Naruto was going to be fine.

But seeing him... seeing him unconscious lying in a hospital bed really frightened her. She wished that he would wake up now, wished that she had confirmation that he would be okay. He had defended her, like he always had, and had ended up getting hurt.

She thought back to the events of the mission. Thought of Ginjo murdering all of those shinigami. Thought of the two people on the man's team, one of whom she had fought and defeated herself. She still did not know if the girl was okay, or if she had died like the other two.

She looked up to meet Sakura's gaze. "No one else on Squad Four will tell me, but do you know if the girl I fought is okay? Did she recover? I don't really know why they are keeping it such a secret, but Squad Four did heal her, right?"

Sakura leaned in closer to Momo. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone this, but Lieutenant Kotetsu herself healed the little girl to at least a stable level and dropped her off at the nearest human hospital. Isane erased her memories of the event and left, hurrying back here."

Momo looked at her with confusion. "Why did she not tell anyone? I don't get it."

"This girl was an enemy, Momo. And Squad Four is not allowed to leave Soul Society without express Central 46 permission," Sakura explained. "The Captain helped her sneak away so that she could hopefully grant the girl a relatively normal life."

"That's a dumb rule," she muttered under her breath. "What happens if someone is injured in a Hollow attack and can't make it through a Senkaimon?"

"Exactly," Sakura said. "I've been trying to convince Unohana to let me organize an Interdimensional Relief Team within the Squad, but it's out of her hands. I'm not going to give up trying though."

Hinamori nodded. "That's good. Don't give up trying to do that. And thanks for letting me know. I won't tell anyone."

Sakura nodded, before returning her attention to Naruto. "I don't plan on giving up. I think it's too important."

Momo agreed with her, her expression solemn as she watched Sakura apply healing Kido to the nearly-healed wound on Naruto's hip.

She watched the boy's peaceful face, pretending in her mind that he was only asleep. The moonlight streamed through the window, caressing the boy's cheek-whiskers. The image made her smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rasentane means "Spiraling Seed."


	7. Regret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

_A figure stood trapped in the past, lost in the present. Nothing was clear, nothing was right. She didn't have substance, didn't have feeling._

_Blurred landscapes filled with bright greens and stunning blues..._

_Tiny bulbs of bright colors mixed with much larger dark hues..._

_Sounds of fighting, a struggle that crossed the land._

_Smells of fire, blood, death._

_Emptiness. Loneliness. Pain. Destruction. Peace. Pain._

_Nothing._

_Not one single image was coherent. Focus could be applied to them, but it was met with little success. Sometimes the haze was clear enough to reveal the corner of a piece of navy fabric. The fine-tuned point of a dagger. A flicker of sandy brown dust, a liquid drop of red-blood crimson._

_It scared her._

_She could not contain the foreign influences that seemed to switch tones within the fractions of each second._

_She was not even sure how long each second was. It seemed the lines of time were blurred. Blurring in and out of existence like it could never, ever be understood._

_Her mind was a cluttered mess of nothingness._

_And yet, she felt everything._

* * *

"Damn it!" the boy yelled, his short sword slashing through the air and catching the bird-like hollow on the wing. He parried the next strike from its talon, the attack dangerously close to hitting his neck.

The hollow shouted a battle-cry, swiping at him again. He twisted backwards with as much speed as he could, throwing himself away from the bladed feathers and the spear-like beak extending from the mask. It scowled, opening its maw and unleashing what could only be a sonic attack. He had to fight consciousness from the sheer pain of that, feeling one of his ear-drums bursting from the effort.

"Uzumaki!" a voice yelled, using the surname Naruto had gotten from his zanpakuto spirit. He didn't have time to look, the avian creature taking advantage and flying fast toward him.

When the pain numbed enough, he brought up his sword and blocked the strike, the pure force of it flinging him back far enough that he slammed into the wall behind him, knocking out his breath.

Why was he having this much trouble against the hollow? It wasn't like this one was particularly strong, at least not by the feel of its reiatsu. It is just the fact that it was relying on trickery and its abilities rather than just strength?

He spared a look at the source of the voice, seeing Shikamaru struggling against a turtle-like hollow, who ironically, had quite a bit of speed. Third Seat Nara retreated from his opponent, holding his katana in front of him and trying to think of a way out of this. That was what Shikamaru was good at after all.

The other squad members of Squad Eight and Squad Thirteen had already gone ahead to protect, and konso, the group of souls that had died in the bus accident a few blocks away. Naruto was not worried, because Sentaro and Kiyone were there and could handle themselves.

But why was he having this much trouble? He didn't think these low-level hollows would even need his shikai. He had tried two separate Hado and Bakudo, but they had not managed to do anything because the damn falcon-like hollow was fast enough to dodge them.

 **"Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!"**  The great wave of cackling blue fire streaked through the sky, but the hollow managed to avoid the blunt of the attack, only part of it singeing the end of its left wing.

 _"It'll take more than that, shinigami!"_  the hollow cried, diving at him so quickly that Naruto had to shunpo backwards to evade it, the creature crushing the sidewalk and then flinging the concrete at him. The Fourth Seat leapt into the air quickly enough to evade the large boulder, before deciding to move onto the offensive, throwing himself into the air.

"Let's see how  _you_  like it!" he exclaimed, diving at the monster with his sword pointed at a forty-five degree angle, hoping to at least be able to graze it. The creature screeched again, the sound deafening and distracting him long enough that he lost control of his descent.

The blonde hit the pavement hard, his sword scattering from his hands. "Shit," he deadpanned, rolling out of the way of the monster's next attack, his ears pounding in his head. One side was bleeding, red streaming from his ears.

He flash-stepped in the direction of his sword, scooping it up despite his lack of proper balance. The hollow's sonic attack must be affecting his inner ear, and he cursed at the implications of that.

Shikamaru noticed his trouble but was unable to help him, the turtle moving fast enough that he couldn't really comment on anything. The turtle's thick shell covered every inch of its body, like a dinosaur's dense armor. Every attack that he threw at it, the creature simply absorbed it or dodged it, moving at surprising speeds.

"You're not going to be able to do anything to me, shinigami. Let me feed on you and your friends and all the other shinigami and souls back at the site of the accident!"

Shikamaru blasted forward, his signature ability to run away working for him here. He threw out his katana, grazing against the body of the hollow but unable to possibly damage it. The creature's heavy tail whipped out and collided with Shikamaru's stomach, throwing him into a car and denting it. It created a scene for any bystanders, and Shikamaru realized that he had to attract the creature out of the area.

He air-stepped up into the sky, hoping the creature would follow. He ran through several strategies, thinking over the possibilities. Force was not going to work, so he needed ingenuity. What could he do now that could help him defeat this bastard?

He only had one choice, but that wouldn't exactly work as well in the air... His eyes widened, realizing that it could work very well.

 **"Split, Kakusayami!"** With a purple flash of light, his katana turned dark black and then disappeared, leaving him seemingly without a weapon. The hollow laughed as it headed for him, jumping on the air as easily as if it could fly.

"That's a pretty strange shikai," the creature began. "Did you force your own sword to disappear? I'll show you how stupid your last decision will ever be!" The turtle-like hollow rushed at him, its spiked, skull-like mask heading right for him.

Shikamaru didn't move. His body remained perfectly still, but his mind was spinning rapidly. Just before the hollow appeared, it stopped, all of its inertia heading upwards as it cried out in pain. The Third Seat looked down to see the being made of pure shadow, a pure black sword stabbing through the creature's abdomen, in between two plates of pale hide.

The hollow roared in pain, leaping upward fast enough that it pulled itself from the impaling shadow-soldier. Shikamaru's zanpakuto moved to stand in front of him, holding out the blade in a basic kendo form.

Ideally, his shikai fit him so well. Having someone do all the fighting for him was perfect; it all came down to his mental commands.

The turtle-like hollow charged once more, but the shadow-being slashed at the creature, cutting through a layer of the creature's armor.

_"What? No one has been able to pierce through my armor!"_

"Your armor doesn't work for energy-based attacks, and my shadow is similar." His dark minion attacked the hollow once more, cutting into the creature's arm and then clean off. The monster roared again, but before it could do anything else, the shadow leapt upward and slammed into the center of the creature's shell.

He took a deep breath and then released it, thankful that the hollow had not seen his shadow-self approaching or having the creature be able to understand his ability. It was timed just right that the creature slammed into the bird-like hollow Naruto was fighting, pinning it to the ground before vanishing.

Nara silently thanked his zanpakuto spirit, before resealing and putting it away. He wasn't looking forward to Naruto giving him hell about interfering in his fight, but he couldn't care less.

The falcon hollow prepared to take off again, but Naruto was ready this time. He trapped it with a powerful Hainawa rope, before walking up to it calmly and stabbing it in the eye. It made one last attempt to sonic-scream but it was already finished. The last hollow disappeared as well, dissipating into tiny spirit particles.

"Before you start, Naruto, I just want you to know that I did not mean to have my hollow fall onto your hollow."

The blonde rolled his eyes, breathing deeply from the battle fatigue. "Yeah, right, Shikamaru. You never make a moment in battle happen by accident. Why'd you have to interfere? I could have beaten it on my own!"

"Yeah, probably. I managed to help you wrap it up though, so let's get back to the others. I need a nap."

Naruto shook his head, not surprised by his response. He knew he could have beaten the hollow if he had used his shikai, so he probably should have used it sooner.

As he and Shikamaru headed to meet up with the other squad members and help the souls migrate to the other side, Naruto could have sworn he felt something... odd. Something that just felt very strange, not on his normal senses and not on his spiritual radar. It was just... within his mind.

It was enough that it nearly made him stop altogether, to question where that brief flash of a feeling even came from. He wanted to know where it had come from, and why it had felt so foreign and yet familiar at the same time.

_Kusaritane, do you have any idea what that was? Did you have something to do with it?_

_"No, I'm afraid I do not. It did seem to be a little out of the ordinary, but it seems to have gone."_

Naruto could not decipher it, and when he realized he had fallen behind Shikamaru, he pushed onward, his mind still trying to wrap around it.

* * *

When they returned to the Soul Society, Naruto and the other members of Squad Thirteen returned to the barracks. He headed to Ukitake to file the report. Eleven souls were sent to the other side, as well as two hollows. He didn't mention the strange feeling he had experienced, thinking that Ukitake would even be able to understand.

Naruto decided that it didn't really matter if he understood it or not, shoving it to the back of his mind. He was completely ready to head to bed, the day nearly over, but someone stopped him in the hallway.

"Hey, Naruto, did your mission go well?" asked Rukia, the unseated shinigami who hardly ever left Third Seat Shiba's side.

The blonde nodded, smiling. "Yeah, I managed. We ran into a little trouble, but it was over soon enough. Did you need anything in particular?"

She looked like she might have something more to say, but the girl shook her head. "No, sir."

"You don't have to call me sir, Rukia. I'm pretty sure you're older than me," he said, laughing. "Did you need something?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could help me work on some things sometime soon? The lieutenant has been busy lately, and he hasn't been able to help me as much as he used to."

Naruto smiled, nodding. "Yeah, I don't see why not. I've done it a few times before, but you tend to teach me too." She laughed. "It's usually more like us training together really. Were you having any trouble with something in particular?"

Before she could comment, Sentaro suddenly appeared, rushing in the direction of the captain's room. "Where's the fire?" he asked, smiling but realizing that the serious look on the man's face was not a good sign.

"What's wrong, Sentaro?" asked Rukia, worried.

"No time to explain!" he said, rushing past them. The two of them followed, heading toward the captain's office.

Sentaro slid open the door, shouting, "Sir! The recon team! There's bad news!" The captain coughed in surprise, and the lieutenant shot up, ready to act.

Naruto's eyes widened, and Rukia froze completely. The reconnaissance team that had left earlier that day had been led by Third Seat Shiba, although that was all Naruto knew. He had left on his own mission to the World of the Living before he could receive any more details.

Naruto followed the others to a relief station within the barracks, not quite as well equipped as Squad Four. Lying inside and being monitored by a low-ranking shinigami was Miyako Shiba, her reiatsu so low and fluctuating that Naruto knew it did not look good for her.

The lieutenant gasped upon entering the room, his expression one of horror. "Miyako!"

"She's unconscious now," the shinigami on duty explained, "but her life is not in any danger."

Naruto was relieved. Hearing him say that made him feel so much better.

The white-haired captain looked grave. "And the others?"

"They're all dead, sir."

"All four of them?"

Shock spread through the room, Naruto's heart beating fast. It had been weeks- no, months since someone on the squad died in battle, and that had been only one life. Hearing that four died all at once was more terrifying than ever.

Rukia stepped forward, her expression filled with concern. "Kaien?"

"What killed them, sir? What was so dangerous about this mission?" asked Naruto, his emotions on high.

The captain was lost in thought, but once he realized he was being addressed, he shook off the confusion. "This hollow was particularly dangerous, even more so than we originally anticipated." He looked toward the unconscious body of Kaien's wife. "She was lucky to have survived, Kaien. You should be thankful."

The lieutenant did not comment, his expression grave and stoic. He could not leave his wife's side, worried too much for her own safety to think about anything else.

* * *

Eventually, the others turned to bed. Naruto left the room but could not head to bed himself, deciding to take over a shift guarding the perimeter wall of the barracks. He had too much on his mind and not enough time to consider the options of what was happening.

The blonde sighed, watching the woodsy area and feeling slightly reminiscent of his time in Rukongai all those years ago. He had to be nearly ninety years old by now, not including how long he lived as a human. And he had no clue how long that had been.

The leaves were a comforting sight, however; calming, almost peaceful. He could not quite understand why. He had brought it up with Hinamori once, and she had theorized that it had a connection with the plant-like nature of Kusaritane. That may have been the case, but Naruto liked nature, so perhaps he was reading too much into it.

Nevertheless, the trees seemed to calm his nerves. He was still trying to wrap his mind around what had happened to Miyako and the others. He still did not have a clue what kind of hollow the others had faced, but it made him consider that it could have been him or Shikamaru that had been hurt. If the hollows had been a little bit more advanced, there was no question that they could have been seriously injured; Naruto was already nursing some nasty bruises and a cut on his left shoulder. What if it had been the kind of hollow that had hurt Miyako? Would he have shared the same fate as her, or would it have been even worse for him?

He cursed, thinking far too hard about the matters at hand. He wanted to visit with Hinamori, but he knew she was either too busy or asleep. Either way, the girl always had the unique ability to help him clear his mind of fear and doubt.

The blonde felt a spike of energy behind him, not far away but potent enough that it was readable. He was further surprised when he realized that it was familiar, but he could not quite place who it was.

A scream shattered the night, and he immediately flash-stepped toward the source, danger fueling his adrenaline. What could be happening?

His eyes widened when he saw Miyako Shiba, her face splattered with blood, the bodies of three night patrol squad members strewn around her. Shadows obscured the top half her face, but there was no mistaking who it was. Naruto gasped as the woman suddenly sped toward him, her sword raised above her head.

He grabbed his own wakizashi, parrying the strike and then falling back, his body reacting faster than his own mind.

"What are you doing, Third Seat Shiba? Why did you kill them?!" The blonde asked, blocking another clumsy strike but not wanting to go onto the offensive.

The woman made no reply, continuing her almost desperate and mistake-filled attacks. Her form was... not good, her body moving unrealistically for combat. She left far too many holes open in her defense, holes that Naruto knew he could exploit if the situation were different. The sounds of their blades clashing filled the night, and it eventually caught someone's attention.

Captain Ukitake and Rukia suddenly appeared, their faces surprised to see the dueling shinigami and even more surprised to see the three dead squad members at their feet. "Wha- What's going on, Naruto? Miyako?"

"Naruto, why are you attacking her?!" Rukia shouted, reaching for her own sword to try to intervene. Sentaro and Kiyone appeared behind her, aghast at what was happening.

Naruto cursed under his breath, blocking another strike and stepping backward again, trying to put some distance between them. "I came to investigate a spike in reiatsu and a scream, but I found her attacking and killing these three squad members! She suddenly started attacking me when I got here!" He threw up his short sword to defend against another strike to his neck, flinging his body away from the enemy's blade.

He ran backwards, her surprisingly not following. But after a few seconds, she smiled and then shot forward toward the group.

The lieutenant materialized in front of them, throwing out both arms to defend the people behind them. "Stop it, Miyako!" Kaien shouted into the night.

The woman ground to a halt, her sword arm still poised in the air as though she were going to strike them at any given moment. She seemed to be struggling, her body twisting strangely. Before anyone could confront her, she leaped into the air over them, dropped, and then jumped again, heading away from the area. Another scream tore into the night, and Naruto grimaced at what was even happening.

"Kaien, hurry!" Ukitake said, not making a move forward. The usual captain-like behavior of not getting involved unless necessary. The lieutenant nodded, weaving through the crowd and hurrying after her. After another few seconds, the rest followed.

The carnage before them was tough to stomach, another two dead shinigami lying before them. The smell of blood and meat was thick in the air, and Naruto had to fight down his stomach at the thought of it.

"I can't believe she did this," Ukitake said, his body illuminated by the torch light.

"Oh, Kaien," Rukia muttered softly, her concern written heavily across her face.

"Let me go after her, Captain." Kaien stood up from examining one of the bodies. "She co-could not have gotten very far, sir."

"No, don't!" The captain exclaimed. "Think about it. Following her is exactly what the enemy wants you to do."

"That may be," the lieutenant said grimly. "But it's still the only option. This monster that's controlling Miyako used her to kill her own men, men who trusted her. Miyako's honor has been defiled! You must let me go, Captain!"

There was a long pause after his plea, the only sound the crackling of the torches and the fluttering of the wind through the trees. Naruto realized that they must be dealing with some kind of hollow that can control others, the only explanation that he could stomach for Miyako's behavior. He did not know all the details about this hollow, but he trusted those that did.

"Very well," Ukitake affirmed. "I shall go with you."

Everyone had not expected that. "What? You, Captain?" asked Kaien, surprised. It was not like Ukitake to get involved, considering his sickness.

"What about your illness, sir? You should let me come along instead, let me back him up!" exclaimed Naruto, not wanting Ukitake to risk himself getting into this kind of danger.

"I appreciate your concern, Naruto, but I will be heading with Kaien." He turned to the blonde and Rukia. "I want you two to come as well. Sentaro, Kiyone, seal off this area and call the squad to battle stations!"

"Understood, sir!" the two said together, bowing slightly.

"Go!"

* * *

The four of them suddenly stopped, looking apprehensively at something lying over the branch of a tree. It was almost too dark to see.

"What is that?" asked Naruto, his hand on his hilt.

"Kaien," the captain murmured, as the lieutenant moved automatically to go and investigate. He barely sensed quick enough that several red appendages shot toward him, snapping like a whip through the air. The shinigami leaped into the air, stopping aboard a thick branch and the others joined him.

The object in question fell off of the branch, swaying in the wind. Naruto realized that it was Miyako's shihakusho, and it looked like it might still have something inside.

The hollow's body emerged from it, crawling on strange limbs that looked far too human for a hollow. The creature had strange red hair and a mask that was decorated with orange and green markings, two deep black holes for eyes. It did not seem powerful, but Naruto knew not to take that lightly.

"I'll go first, sir," Rukia said quietly, putting her hand on her zanpakuto. "I'll scout out what it's abilities are."

Naruto shook his head, about to comment that if Miyako could not handle this creature, what chance did Rukia have? But the lieutenant stepped forward, silencing any opportunity for them to argue.

"Captain, I beg of you. Permission to go fight it alone."

Another moment of hesitation, and Naruto disagreed with this plan vehemently. "Go."

Lieutenant Shiba only needed that bit of confirmation from the captain. He blasted forward, leaves churning through the air from his just his amount of speed. He stepped down, his hand always prepared to draw his sword.

The hollow laughed.  _"So you're the first, eh? You're nothing but a boy!"_

Kaien did not comment, but instead looked toward the shihakusho of his now dead wife, her sword lying scattered on the ground. "Tell me. How many shinigami have you devoured so far?"

 _"Ah,"_  the hollow said, relishing in the deaths of his enemies.  _"How many?"_  It laughed again.  _"Sorry, boy! I don't keep track of such trivial things!"_

"Have you ever, even once, had any regrets about it?"

 _"That's such a stupid question. I have a heart, you know. Just like you. There isn't a single night that I don't have regrets about eating a shinigami. Even now, I'm having regrets about that woman shinigami."_  The hollow paused.  _"I regret having not eaten the rest of her!"_

"So you controlled her and made her kill her comrades?" the shinigami interrupted, the hollow's maniacal laughter breaking through the night. Naruto wanted nothing more than to interrupt, just to shut that stupid hollow up.

 _"Controlled her?"_  It found the statement hilarious.  _"Oh, not the way you're imagining! I was actually inside her body and then I ate my way outside of her, returning to the form you see now! Too bad you didn't get to see that part!"_

Kaien's reiatsu intensified in anger, so powerful that it started to become visible in an aura around him. He drew his blade and prepared to strike.

_"Wanna see what it's like yourself? Come on, boy! I'll eat you too!"_

In that moment, the Shiba slashed outward, slicing two limbs of the creature clean off. The monster screamed, but Kaien didn't stop. He latched onto one of the hollow's red hair-like tentacles.

_"You're fast, boy. But not fast enough!"_

**"Rankle the seas and the skies, Nejibana!"**

There was a surge in spiritual pressure and Naruto was excited; he had never seen Kaien's shikai in action. But as the sword started to change, it suddenly melted and vanished, shocking everyone watching.

"What the hell?!"

_"You fell for it, boy! Once every night, the first one to touch my tentacles will see his zanpakuto destroyed!"_

Another red tentacle snapped toward him like a whip, and he threw up his arms in defense as it smashed against him, knocking him back.

"Kaien! Get away!" Rukia yelled, scared for his life now.

Naruto's hand inched toward his sword, but when the Kuchiki girl actually grabbed her hilt, Captain Ukitake stopped her.

"Captain? Kaien has been disarmed! We have to help him!"

"But if we were to step in now, what would become of Kaien's pride? Even if by going to his aid, you were somehow successful in saving his life, the cost of such an act would certainly be the death of his pride forever!"

Naruto couldn't take it anymore. "That doesn't make any sense at all!"

"Exactly! What good is a man's pride if he's dead?!" Rukia exclaimed.

Kaien threw himself backwards, holding out a palm and firing a Shakkaho, the creature withstanding the blast of fire-like reiryoku. He dodged another counter-strike, and Naruto wished that Ukitake would let him join the fight!

"Listen now, and remember these words," Ukitake began. "There are two kinds of battles, and those of us who are warriors and have chosen to fight those battles must always be aware of the difference between the two.

"There are battles that are fought to protect lives. And there are battles that are fought to protect honor."

As Ukitake continued, Kaien flash-stepped to the top of the creature's back, ripping away at a tentacle with a reiatsu-enhanced grip.

"Right now, Kaien is fighting with all his heart and soul to defend honor, that of his men who died and his own honor! And above all, his beloved wife's honor!"

Rukia eventually brought her hand down from her hilt, but Naruto kept it at the ready, for a reason that he could not easily identify. He knew that Ukitake had a point and that Kaien was a man with that type of honor code, but Naruto was not sure that his own was that black and white. If it were him in this situation, however, he was not sure how he would react or if he would want others to help him.

 _"What's the matter, shinigami? Too full of yourself to ask your friends to help you?"_ The hollow's mask was covered in blood, its limbs dripping crimson.

Kaien sighed, breathing heavily. "Shut up! I don't need a sword or anything else to handle scum like you!"

 _"We'll see about that. Because now I'm about to do unto you, as I did unto your beloved and delicious wife!"_  The hollow paused, confused.  _"I'm going to play you like a puppet from inside, and against your will! You'll slay your comrades with your own hand!"_

Without warning, the creature's tentacles bunched up in a dome-like shape, and then burst outward, an explosion of reiatsu accompanying them. Kaien raised an arm to defend himself, but as soon as the tentacles reached him, they burrowed quickly into his arm, following his veins until every piece of tentacle was sealed within the shinigami's body.

Naruto gasped at the implications, as he watched the rest of the hollow's body disappear. Kaien lowered his arm, standing solidly.

"Lieutenant... Kaien?"

 _"Yes? What is it, girl?! What do you want?"_ The lieutenant turned, making Rukia and Naruto gasp. Around Kaien's eyes were orange markings, his sclera black as though he did not even have eyes. The hollow had taken over his body.

Rukia repeated herself, questioning the situation. Naruto was not sure how to react to this, but his hand did not leave his blade.

 _"What is with you, girl? Why do you keep repeating my name? Are you that worried about me?"_  The creature looked up, forcing everyone to look into the blackness of his soul.  _"Or are you in love with me!?"_

The hollow in Kaien's form shot forward, leaping up to their level. "I guess if you really love me that much, then maybe I should eat you first!"

Naruto and Ukitake both moved at the same moment, but Ukitake beat him to it, blocking the hollow's attack with the silver of his zanpakuto inside the jaw of the beast. Naruto made a motion to attack Kaien's lower body, but Ukitake pulsed his reiatsu in their direction.

"No! Get away, both of you! Run away, back to the barracks! Warn the others!" The captain warned, pressing forward. "Naruto, that's an order!"

The two shinigami nodded, rushing backwards. Naruto hated the idea of leaving, knowing that he was capable of fighting. He worried about the captain's safety, knowing all about his sickness and how troubled it was. What if it interrupted him from fighting?

"C'mon, let's hurry back!" Naruto shouted to a crying Rukia, and Naruto was curious for a moment if the hollow had been right. Had Rukia actually loved Kaien? "Maybe someone back at the barracks knows a way to save him, rid him of that hollow!"

Rukia looked at him hopefully, that idea spurning her forward. Naruto kept his spiritual senses open, and he felt the familiar pressure of Ukitake in battle. But suddenly, it started to drop and Naruto's eyes widened.

Without warning, he turned around quickly, using as much speed as he could. Rukia would notice but might still be safe. Naruto had to help, had to help his captain because of the illness. That was the only explanation for the sudden drop in spiritual pressure.

Naruto returned to the scene, Ukitake kneeling on the ground coughing up blood and hollow-Kaien heading toward him.

"You were supposed to get away from here, you idiot!" Ukitake yelled, standing up despite the pain.

The shinigami readied his blade, his lieutenant diving toward him from the sky. Naruto leapt into the air to meet him, avoiding the red tentacles spitting from his arms and mouth and slashing into the man's side.

He stayed in the air as his lieutenant tried to recover, falling through the air. Naruto made to attack again, but as Kaien hit the ground, the trauma knocked him unconscious or worse. Naruto dropped back down, landing near the profusely bleeding shinigami and wishing there was something that he could do; his healing Kido was not great at all.

"Naruto! End him quickly!" Ukitake yelled, coughing again and stopping completely. "There's... nothing you can... do!"

Naruto pleaded with the captain with just a look, but the white-haired shinigami shook his head, coughing into his hand.

Something latched onto his foot suddenly, and Naruto tried to yank his foot away. The hollow forced Kaien's obviously dead body forward, attacking Naruto and attempting to spread the tentacles to inhabit the blonde's body. Naruto knelt down reflexively and stabbed, his zanpakuto embedded in the lieutenant's heart.

Finally, Kaien's body lay at peace.

"What!? No...! No, you said we could save him! You said we could save Lieutenant Kaien!" Rukia, appearing from the forest at the wrong moment, shouted angrily, her tears streaming down her face. "And then you stabbed him!"

Naruto saw her pained expression, rain starting to pour. "But he was going to kill me! Us! All of us! I just... reacted!"

"But you said we could help him! You... you promised we could save him! You said it! You said it, Naruto!"

She broke down, crying hard over his body. Ukitake stumbled up to the scene, wiping his hand with his coat and trying to control his weakness.

"Captain! Use your healing Kido!" Rukia begged through tears, her words barely coherent. "We can save him! Revive him, rid him of the hollow!"

The captain shook his head, his duties preventing his emotions from getting to the better of him. "It... it was impossible to save him. Killing his body was the only way to kill the hollow, so that it could not hurt anymore innocent lives, Rukia. We could not have separated the hollow's soul from Kaien's soul, because they were both made of spiritons... I'm sorry."

Rukia continued to cry, desperately and emotionally. Naruto watched the scene, pulling his zanpakuto from the man's chest and wiping it carefully on the grass. He sheathed it, realizing that he would never be able to look at Kusaritane again without remembering the blood that stained it today.

* * *

"How are you feeling, Naruto?"

He looked up to see the small brunette, her hair wrapped in bun. He embraced her as soon as she sat down beside him on his bunk. "Guilty. Hurt. I... I should have not listened to the captain. I should have intervened with the fight, and none of this would have ever had to happen."

"You can't blame yourself," Hinamori said, rubbing his back lightly. "Naruto, you have to put this past you. Captain Aizen always says that anything can happen and that no one is at fault in situations like this. He's always there to remind me that life can throw us for surprises, but that we should prepare ourselves mentally for the worst."

Naruto nodded, wiping away the first tear that he had even had over this. "Thank you, Momo."

She smiled, glad to see him looking slightly more positive. "Now, let's get up and go get something to eat. I'm famished because I didn't have a chance to eat after the funeral."

He smiled, letting her yank him up and then following her out of the door together. As they passed Sentaro and Kiyone, both were crying over the loss of two of their greatest friends; Naruto could smell the sake, but he didn't mind. But when they saw Momo and Naruto walking side by side, Kiyone perked up.

"Oh, look at the newest couple!"

"It's about time, Naruto!" Sentaro cried out, laughing at the implications.

"Shut up! We're not a couple!" Naruto cried back, but Momo could only laugh, choosing not to comment. The blush filled both of their faces.

As they finally exited the barracks, far to the left was Rukia, sitting on a bench and watching the stream pass by. She didn't notice them pass, her mind occupying her own little world. Momo frowned.

"How is she doing?"

"Not good," he replied. "Worse than anyone in the squad. She's still angry with me for making the final blow, and she hasn't talked to me since right before the funeral. She asked me to help her train, but now she won't even speak to me."

Momo looked solemn. "She'll come around soon enough. She can't be angry with you forever, right?"

Naruto simply sighed, thinking about everything that had happened. Both the lieutenant and the third seat were gone, leaving Naruto as the acting-lieutenant for now. He had lost two great friends to the same hollow, and if he had been stronger and more willing to act on his own, he could have prevented this tragedy.

He'll carry that regret with him always. The regret that he had not acted, had not pushed hard enough to save them, to save Kaien.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kakusayami loosely translates to "Darkness Divide."


	8. Cost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

The place was dark and dreary, the room obscured with shadows. The only light in the dank room was one small torch.

"Is it nearly time?" the girl's voice asked, her thoughts filled with worry and scattered feelings that did not feel like her own.

"It  _is_  time, Milady," a male explained, kneeling before her. "We have nearly gathered enough to expand and destroy the Dangai."

The girl looked toward the window, the moon shining down on her face. "Are we certain this is the right thing to do?"

"Are you expressing doubts?" the man asked, suddenly surprised by her questioning.

She shook her head. "No, if this is how to get to him, then we need to go through with it. We're... only going after him, right?"

The man nodded. "Of course, Milady. With your power, we'll storm the Seireitei and bring him here, as you requested."

"Good. Are we sure that he'll know where to find it?"

The white-haired man paused, wondering. "Well, we can't know until we try."

"That is all, Ganryu."

The man bowed as he left her room, heading out to finish the preparations. He left the grungy room feeling newly confident.

* * *

The bar was loud and filled with laughter, far after the sun went down that night, but they were all rather excited and could barely contain their high-spirited celebration. They shared quite a few drinks, much to Matsumoto's enjoyment and Toshiro's annoyance. But it was all in good fun, Naruto figured, enjoying a few drinks of his own but not too much.

 _You do know that when you're incapacitated like this, you're more likely to become injured in battle._ Kusaritane had a warning tone.

_Yeah, yeah, but we're not battling anyone right now. We're celebrating! Toshiro's a captain now!_

He could feel his sword's nagging continue, but did not press it, turning his attention to the others. He wished that everyone could have been there, but some were busy with missions or paperwork at the moment. Samui had an unhealthy appreciation for sake, and she and Rangiku were laughing and carrying on. Shikamaru was only slightly buzzed, but he was already fighting off sleep. Momo sat next to Naruto, not having touched a drink once despite the blonde's urging.

"C'mon, Momo, try a little bit. A little drink won't hurt! Our Lil'Shiro is a captain now! We gotta be excited for him!"

"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you, Uzumaki."

The lieutenant smiled at the silver-haired captain, who was seemingly annoyed with all the attention but was still in a pleasant mood. "I am excited for you, Lil'Shiro. I just don't think that Captain Aizen would approve."

 _That man has some sense,_  Kusaritane offered in the back of Naruto's mind, but he ignored it.

"The captain's not here, Momo! Why do you let him control your fun?"

Rangiku noticed the train of questioning, her drunkenness showing in her every movement. "I know, right? Captain Aizen shouldn't be able to influence a woman of your caliber, Hinamori! If anything, you should be influencing  _him_!"

Both women laughed, and after a few more moments of trying to get her to agree, she finally nodded and poured a glass.

"Cheers to Lil'Shiro, for finally becoming a captain!" she said jovially, before taking a drink of her own and twisting her face at the taste. The sight only made Naruto laugh even more.

There was a change in the air, however, suddenly attracting everyone's attention. Naruto stood at the ready, the other shinigami in the bar noticing the disturbance as well. The civilians did not seem to notice. "What's going on?"

There was a scream from somewhere outside, and everyone practically jumped from their seats. You could hear a pin drop in the room.

"That's not a good sign," Samui deadpanned.

The shinigami rushed outside, where they found several shocked civilians. An entire crowd was forming, all gasping when they looked to the sky and saw quite the sobering sight.

It seemed as though the sky had been split open as far as the eye could see, an almost portal-like imprint of some other place. Naruto had no clue what was happening, but it did not seem like anyone else did either. The tension in the atmosphere was thick, a feeling not unlike spiritual pressure rooting in everyone's bones.

Captain Hitsugaya turned to them quickly, preparing to head out. "Head to your barracks and inform the other captains. Something terrible is happening."

"Maybe Research and Development knows more?" suggested Shikamaru, who still looked like he was barely awake but highly interested.

"Most likely," the silver-haired captain explained, flashing out of sight followed quickly by his lieutenant, Matsumoto.

The group split up to their respective squads, but before Hinamori left, Naruto nodded to her. "Be careful, Momo!"

She smiled at him and nodded back, using Shunpo to flash through the city.

Naruto wished that he could air-step through the Seireitei, knowing that it would be faster than going over the rooftops, but he would have to settle. He leapt from roof to roof, heading to the Squad Thirteen barracks. A Hell butterfly would likely explain what they were to do or what information they would learn, but Naruto knew heading to the barracks would be the best choice.

There was a flash on his spiritual radar, and Naruto drew his blade just in time to parry a white blade's strike to his back. He leapt backwards, landing on a rooftop and looking at his potential enemy.

The creature was very skinny, pure white with twin blades for arms, almost like a praying mantis. The head of the enemy was bright pink, shaped like a pin. It did not resemble anything he had ever fought before, but he still wondered if it was a hollow or not.

The creature did not follow him, righting itself and stepping into a fighting stance. Before he could say or do anything, more of the white creatures fell from the sky, until there were six of them, each identical down to the very weaponized claw.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, reading its movements although his mind was rather cloudy, his body feeling a little too riled up by the alcohol. "Who are you? What do you know about what's going on?"

The six creatures did not answer, suddenly rushing at him. He cursed under his breath and threw up his blade, blocking one strike and snapping his right leg outward, kicking another one at least fifteen feet away. He realized they were going to overwhelm him, so he shot backwards, slashing outward and slicing the arm off of one of them.

More fell from the sky, numbers approaching him. He had no clue what was possibly going on, but the creatures continued to fall through the mirage and head right for him, only momentarily disturbing the barrier over the Seireitei.

He immediately raised his sword.  **"Hado Number Fifty-eight: Tenran!"** He let go of his blade, spinning it like a propeller, before grabbing it again and unleashing a tornado-like blast of wind.

He supplied as much of his reiatsu as he could, strengthening the onslaught of wind and throwing the white creatures backwards. He must have caught half of them in the attack, but the other half continued to hurl toward the blonde, ignoring the spell and going around it.

He flashed forward with speed, slashing through another three before getting caught once more in the sheer numbers. They were crowding him, the nearest ones slashing at him and it was all he could do to keep himself alive.

He raised his spiritual pressure as high as he could, pulsating it as a signal for the captain or anyone else nearby to notice and come to help. The sheer numbers were overwhelming, more and more dropping from the sky with each passing second. Why were they only attacking him, and why him at all? What were these things?

**"Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!"**

His sword transformed with a flash of light, instantly becoming the gauntlet on his right arm with a dagger extending from his wrist. He did not want to use his shikai in this situation, but these bastards kept coming.

He leaped to the side to avoid another strike, parried a second with his forearm, and then stabbed his arm forward to cut into the gut of one of them. He swept his foot outward, knocking another to the ground and then stabbing into its chest.

He jumped as high as he could and then extended the chain, wrapping around three of the creatures and pulling them together quickly.  **"Shakkaho!"** A red fireball collided with the three trapped enemies, causing them to disappear.

He landed on another rooftop, retracting the blade before extending it again. He stabbed into the shoulder of an enemy, whipped his arm to the right, and then flung it into another. There were still so many that they followed after him, ignoring the chained blade and heading right for him.

He cursed and knocked a bladed hand away from his face using the arm bracer, kicking at its waist and then firing a Sokatsui for added affect. His dagger retreated, returning to the holster.

"Where the hell do these guys keep coming from?" His blade began to spin at his request, before firing off and becoming enshrouded with orange, spinning light. Like a streaking missile, the attack headed right for the enemy.  **"Rasentane!"**

It exploded into a crowd of enemies, spiraling orange energy forming a sprout-like shape before dissipating. His blade returned to his hand and he shot into the smoking cloud, knowing there would still be several after that attack.

"Not bad."

The voice shocked him to his core, and when the smoke cleared, a white-haired man wearing dark green armor and a scar across his left eye appeared.

"Who are you?" he asked, thankful for a moment that the creatures had stopped their onslaught the moment the man appeared.

"Ah. But see, that's the question I have for you," the man explained, drawing his blade and streaking toward Naruto. The shinigami braced himself, the forked part of his dagger blocking the enemy's katana.

"I'm not going to answer that! Call off this attack and surrender your weapons! You're ridiculous if you think you can attack the Seireitei like this!"

"Attack?" asked the man, confused. "This isn't an attack."

In one instant, the creatures converged on the blonde from all angles and overwhelmed him. The man smirked as Naruto tried to struggle but was unable to escape their grasping bodies and attacking.

"This is a kidnapping." The man raised his hand, energy gathering on the end of his fingertips as the white creatures were gathered into it like wisps of smoke.

Naruto raised his spiritual pressure once more, in part to shove them off and to attract any allies to save him, but it was his last conscious act. The light of the enemy's Kido-like attack collided with his chest painfully, before spreading until he was surrounded with an opaque liquid. It held his arms down, numbing every inch it touched until he could no longer escape. The stasis liquid covered his face until there was nothing he could do but let the darkness take over him.

* * *

The SRDI was buzzing with activity, every single computer monitor and scanner trying to find out what was happening. Third Seat Akon was busy flipping through files anxiously, sweat pouring from the tiny horns on his head.

"Status report?" shouted the Captain, annoyed by their slow-moving minds.

"It appears that this is not some type of illusion. The Dangai Precipice World is receding, creating a gateway into the World of the Living and destabilizing the boundaries between the other worlds!" reported a squad member reading a display on a screen.

"What is the cause?" asked Kurotsuchi, his interest piqued.

"A new dimensional space has appeared in between the World of the Living and the Soul Society, and it seems to be expanding!"

"Expanding?" asked the Captain of Squad Twelve and the leader of the SRDI. "Interesting. The implications... this is remarkable. Does anyone know the parameters of such a space?"

Third Seat Akon pulled out a folder and his eyes widened with shock. "It's the Valley of Screams, sir! It seems to have come into being once more."

Mayuri's eyes widened, his mind spinning as he thought of what that could mean. "Of course! A space such as this could expand until the worlds collide! The image in the sky is the World of the Living's reflection!"

"What do we do, sir?"

Before he could respond, another member suddenly stood. "Strange reiatsu that seems to have stemmed from the Valley of Screams has appeared in the Seireitei, seemingly passing through all our defenses! It swarmed in one area, multiple signatures, before disappearing into the dimensional space once more!"

"A reiatsu signature from our databases seemed to pulsate multiple times before disappearing," said another report. "The signature of one Naruto Uzumaki, the Fourth Seat of Squad Thirteen. He seems to have come into conflict with these mysterious energy signatures, before vanishing on his own a mere moments ago."

"Alert the other squads," the captain ordered. "And don't stop monitoring the situation, you fools."

* * *

The moment she returned to her barracks, Momo suddenly stopped, her spiritual radar pinging. "Naruto?"

She nearly turned around on impulse to rush after him, but at that moment, Captain Aizen opened the door to the barracks, catching her attention. "Momo, I've been waiting on you. Come inside, there's news from Squad Twelve."

She frowned, gesturing slightly. "I think Naruto may be in trouble, Captain. Can you handle the briefing on your own, while I go and check on him?"

The captain smiled almost sadly, his normally cheerful aura shifting to something that seemed very solemn.

"I think I would rather you stay here," he said with a small voice. "It's... far too dangerous out there."

She looked back over her shoulder before nodding, following him inside. Who was she to not trust her captain's word?

The squad was already assembled before the two of them, Captain and Lieutenant of Squad Five. Everyone was apt to listen to Aizen's words, worried about the strange hole in the sky and the ominous feeling in the atmosphere.

"It appears that a dimension that was long thought destroyed has appeared again in the Dangai Precipice World," Aizen explained. "It's called the Valley of Screams, and it's the home of the Blanks. Blanks are normal souls that have had the memories of their past lives removed; in fact, Blanks constitute the entire dimension."

"So Blanks are like us? Aren't we souls without memories?" asked a squad member on the second row.

Aizen nodded. "It's thought, but not understood exactly, that this removal of memories is what makes Blanks powerful." He paused to let them consider that a moment. "This dimension is expanding, pushing on the boundaries between the World of the Living and the Soul Society. The Dangai is a limited space, and as the Valley of Screams expands, the World of the Living and the Soul Society are being pushed together. Before long, they will collide with a powerful explosion that will instantly destroy both worlds."

The shock spread through the crowd, and Momo could hardly believe it herself. Could this possibly be true? Could the Dangai Precipice World vanish, and with it, the boundaries between the worlds?

"What do we do, Captain?"

The leader of Squad Five smiled. "Your duties, for the most part, will not change. As the communications squad, you may be inclined to deliver messages to the other barracks, but most of you will act no different. Other squads are attempting to appropriate a contingency plan for how to stop it, but for now, we have no ideas."

Murmurs spread through the crowd, but eventually, Aizen ended the meeting. Everyone left for their respective posts, but before Momo could leave, the brunette man stopped her with his soft voice. "Momo, I would like a word."

"Yes, my captain?"

"It's about Naruto Uzumaki. Just before the start of this meeting, Squad Twelve sent word that he has been kidnapped by the enemy."

"Enemy?!" She exclaimed, her mind racing and her heart accelerating. "Naruto was kidnapped?"

Aizen nodded. "Yes. We suspect, due to the coordination of the enemy, that there is someone behind this. And for whatever reason, this entity needs Naruto Uzumaki."

* * *

The room was very dark when Naruto opened his eyes finally, only a small candle-like torch lighting the space. He instinctually reached for his sword, but it was sheathed and lying against the wall several feet away. His arms and legs were still surrounded in the Bakudo-like spell, numbing all of his extremities. He wracked his mind for a counter-solution.

"Ah. You're awake."

Someone stepped out in front of him, walking toward him carefully and gracefully. A girl with brunette hair tied back by a yellow ribbon, her eyes a dull orange; she was wearing a bright white kimono with a yellow sash. She looked regal, very beautiful, but he had to be careful around her. She was likely the reason he was even here.

He did not say anything, watching her intently. His eyes never left hers, while still paying attention to any sudden moves. He was completely at her mercy.

She moved closer to him, so close they were mere inches apart, she looking directly into his eyes.

"It _is_  you after all. The one from my dreams, my memories," the girl said, making Naruto wonder. "You're Naruto Uzumaki, aren't you?"

His eyes widened, his initial thought to ask how she knew his name. But if he had been captured, it made sense that he had been singled out with his identity.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?"

The girl seemed surprised for a moment that he managed to say anything at all, and he wondered if she had thought he was mute before now.

"My name is Senna," the girl explained, her smile widening. "And I captured you because I want to know who you are."

"You already know my name," he countered. "Why don't you just let me go?"

"There is more to who people are than just their names, Naruto. We are the product of many past experiences, our memories linking each event to the next and ensuring our continued existence."

"Then what do you want me for? Why do you even know who I am?"

Before this girl could answer, a door behind him opened and the white-haired man from before walked into the room. "I see that you have awoken, Uzumaki. My name is Ganryu. Do you need anything in your stay here?"

His anger bubbled up to the surface. "Need anything? You people attacked me! What makes you think I'll stay here?"

"We only needed to ensure that you would come, and we knew that you would not come willingly."

"You got that right," he retorted.

Ganryu only smiled. "We need you first for a simple purpose, Uzumaki."

"And that is?"

"We need you to remember who you were."

* * *

Toshiro touched down in the Squad One barracks, nervous about his first meeting as a captain, but even more worried about one of his best friends. He had learned not too long ago that Naruto had been captured by the enemy, and it had taken every bit of reasoning he could muster not to rush to save him.

Not all of the other squad captains had arrived yet, Toshiro preferring to be early rather than late. The situation was urgent, and they needed to figure out exactly what they could do in this situation. The encroaching Valley of Screams could destroy all worlds if they did not do something.

Komamura, Tousen, Ichimaru, Aizen, Soifon, and Kuchiki were already present, their expressions varied about the coming threat. The petite captain of Squad Two tried to be as pristine as possible, but failed miserably with the scowl on her face and the slightly anxious fidgeting; Toshiro knew from experience that she was itching to fight, to end this before it escalated to something more than it was. Byakuya Kuchiki was nearly the exact opposite, the image of perfect nobility; so noble and handsome that it made Toshiro's skin crawl thinking about it. Aizen, Momo's captain, had a kind, calming expression that seemed to make everyone feel much more at ease.

Other captains slid into the room after Toshiro, and the more he saw, the more he felt like he didn't belong among these powerful men and women. From the brute force of Captain Kenpachi to the stately appearance of Naruto's captain Ukitake, he could not help but stand a little straighter for the proceedings.

When the old man appeared at the head of the pack, the thirteen captains bowed lightly, before he slammed his cane on the ground. The sound was nearly deafening.

"The Soul Society and the World of the Living are in grave danger," the man began, cutting straight to the point. "The Valley of Screams is continuing to spread, and the space between worlds is diminishing. Captain Kurotsuchi, do you have a report as to how long it will be before it becomes irreversible?"

The captain of Squad Twelve scoffed. "Of course. If something is not done, the worlds will collide in just under three hours."

Murmurs spread throughout the meeting, and only Kuchiki and Komamura kept their expressions calm, the latter only because he didn't have a choice.

"Silence," the head captain said, slamming his cane against the ground once more. "We once eradicated the Valley of Screams from the Dangai Precipice World in the past. However, this situation is not quite the same. It seems that one of our own has been kidnapped, the Fourth Seat and Acting-Lieutenant of Squad Thirteen, Naruto Uzumaki. The organization of the enemy and the comparison of some spiritual pressure found at the scene suggests that the Dark Ones are involved."

"The Dark Ones?" asked Komamura, confused as to what that meant. Hitsugaya was going to ask the same question.

"They are an ancient clan that was exiled from the Soul Society many centuries ago," explained Captain Kyoraku of Squad Eight.

"The fallen house of Ryodoji was banished for trying to incite a civil war among the noble houses, and apparently, they found a way to survive in the hostile environment of the Dangai after all this time," explained Captain Kuchiki.

"So are we looking at descendents of the originals, or the actual originals?" asked Soifon, her fierce attitude apparent in her question. She seemed ready and capable to deal with this.

"I am wondering that as well," Captain Unohana added, her expression vague but kind. "It seems problematic if they found a way to survive this long within the Dangai, given the Cleaner."

"They likely found refuge within a primitive Valley of Screams," Ukitake explained. "It must have shielded them from the restrictive current of the Dangai."

"Not enough was found at the site of Naruto's capture that could say one way or another, and if I could get my hands on them, I could learn how they managed to survive after all these years," Captain Kurotsuchi explained. "Perfect research specimens... I'll have to procure a Blank as well!"

"If they're strong, I want in," Captain Kenpachi stated, smirking and thumbing his sword, making those closest to him a little nervous. Toshiro could feel himself literally begin to sweat at the sight.

"How do you suggest we handle this, Head Captain Yamamoto?" asked Gin, a sly smile ever present on his face. Even in these dire circumstances, nothing could present a threat to him.

"Given the situation, it seems that we will need to use the Kido Cannon to destroy the Valley of Souls once more, and all of those who reside within it. This is the order from Central 46."

Toshiro realized very quickly where he was going with this. "But that would destroy Naruto Uzumaki in the process." The blonde's captain had the same look of shock on his face.

"Yes, it would, Captain," added the captain of Squad Six, a pretentious tone leaking into his voice that suggested that he felt that Hitsugaya did not belong here. "Is it really justified to risk more from our squads in an effort to save him, in a mission that could destroy all of existence should we fail in the process?"

"I hate to agree with Kuchiki there, but it appears he is correct," Soifon added. "If we were to prepare the Kido Cannon quickly enough, we could destroy the dimension before any further damage is dealt and take out our enemies in one fell swoop."

Toshiro was in outrage, but he tried to remain calm. They would surely listen to reason, given the circumstances. "The death of such a high-ranking individual within the squads like Naruto Uzumaki could have much greater implications on your squad's morale, Captain Ukitake. Would it not be more beneficial to you to send a rescue team? And would it not tarnish the Thirteen Court Guard Squads' reputation if word spread that they destroyed their own soldier?"

"You might have a point, Captain Hitsugaya," Komamura agreed amiably, although he was still fiercely inclined to believe whatever the head captain's order was. "But if this is what Central 46 wants, then we cannot budge."

More murmurs spread, and finally, Squad Thirteen's captain spoke up. "Is there a logical way to save him _and_  prepare the Kido Cannon?"

The others thought on this for a moment, but the Head Captain shook his head. "I do not believe that we can risk it. The time needed to prepare the weapon cannot be wasted, and we cannot shirk our other duties as well."

"I simply cannot accept this," Toshiro blurted out, not considering the tone or the implication. He had just passed the Captain's Proficiency Test a mere two days earlier, so no one expected him to blurt anything out.

Captain Kuchiki was the first to speak up among the shocked officials. "Do you have anything to add, Captain Hitsugaya? Perhaps you were not ready to be here."

"Yes. I do, and I do belong here," he stated, stepping forward a moment to let them know he was addressing them all.

"Naruto Uzumaki is one of my greatest friends, one of the few reasons that I am where I am today. He is strong, easily one of the strongest of the Lieutenant-Class shinigami in all of the Seireitei. He has great potential to be something more, and in a few years, he could be Captain-Class. You of all people, Captain Ukitake, should know this to be true; Naruto deserves to be saved."

After he joined the line of captains, no one responded immediately, not sure how to respond. Captain Kuchiki was the first once more, "It is simply not worth betting the safety of all worlds on the life of one man."

"Is that true, Byakuya?" asked Aizen, the brunette's glasses glaring and hiding his eyes. "Is it really worth sacrificing him?"

Everyone looked to the Head Captain for a declaration, sharing an earnest look with Toshiro. "Given the immediate emergency, I may be able to pull some clout with the Central 46. We will reconvene in a few short minutes and I will relay the decision."

* * *

The odd girl who had seemingly orchestrated this whole event never stopped looking at Naruto, bound and held with his arms and legs spread to an almost ridiculous degree. She seemed very content to marvel at him, and the blonde could not figure out why.

He was trying to come up with a strategy to escape, knowing a few techniques that might work on certain Bakudo to nullify them, but he could not be sure they would work on whatever type of spell was binding him.

The enemies seemed to be humanoid and had spiritual pressure, strong spiritual pressure at that, that could rival a shinigami. They seemed a little uptight, a little bit arrogant if he had to guess, and they had such nice clothing that Naruto wondered if they were actually royalty or at least high-class. It made him think of the Kuchikis and the Shibas, oddly enough. Although not so much the Shibas now...

Who were they? Who was this Senna person? What did they really want? What did they mean by making him remember who he is? How were they connected to the giant hole in the sky back in the Soul Society, or was this a separate case?

Questions, questions, questions.

"I've waited so long to finally meet you, Naruto Uzumaki. I've wanted to see what you really looked like, what you smelled like... I've been dreaming of you for so long! I need to know you!"

Naruto's eyes widened even further, swallowing carefully. She sounded too fanatical, too obsessed with him. It was creepy.

"That's not strange at all," he muttered under his breath, trying to get her upset. He was scrambling for ideas at this point...

She clasped her hands together and practically squealed under her breath, her large brown doe eyes settled directly on him. He shuddered under their gaze. "I've wanted you, Naruto. I fell in love with the man of my dreams, literally!"

She finally reached out and touched his cheek.

Naruto's entire body convulsed, his mind seemingly splitting in half in one instant. Images and sensations exploded in his brain, and he screamed.

_A large expanse filled with buildings of yellows and reds, trees dotted throughout the place and woods filling entire city blocks. A large tower with the kanji for "fire" sat directly in front of a mountain where four stone faces were carved literally from stone. He knew that he knew their names, but only one word came to mind at that moment._

_Hokage._

_"I never go back on my word! That's my nindo!"_

_Sound of a thousand birds chirping at once... The heat of a hot springs bath... The words of a teacher seemingly long forgotten..._

He had no words for the experience he just had. He was literally speechless, as tiny details flooded his mind. He couldn't understand what was happening.

"Do you remember, Naruto? Do you remember your time in the village?" asked Senna, her eyes genuinely curious in an almost freaky way. He wanted to label her a crazed fangirl, but he couldn't remember why.

Naruto nodded mutely, still not sure how to comment. "What... what does this even mean? I don't... I don't remember everything. Just... just little things."

Senna smiled brightly and clapped excitedly. "Yes! That's amazing news! You'll only learn more over time!" She touched his cheek again, but there was no memory flash this time. He wanted to bite that hand off and escape, but he would likely only endanger himself if he couldn't find a way to escape.

"I am the Shinenju, the Memory Rosary of the Valley of Screams," explained Senna. "A culmination of all the Blanks' memories, the white entities that you fought earlier. I am composed of many, many memories that are not my own, but the strongest one was your memory, Naruto. Your memories seemed to fight to the surface of my attention, and I've become obsessed ever since."

Naruto let that information sink in. She had all of his memories from his past life. His earliest memories and his latest memories... Even of his death.

"How did you even track me down?" asked Naruto. "How did you know I was a shinigami within the Seireitei?"

Senna was about to eagerly answer when Ganryu stepped into the room once more, cutting her off. "So Naruto, how does it feel to remember yourself once again?"

"Interesting, I guess, but what's the real point? You guys endangered me, just to get me to remember? Why? Why did you want me to remember myself?"

The white-haired man looked toward the Memory Rosary before smiling. "We need your help finding something, and we thought your memories would allow us to track them down." He cleared his throat, staring at Senna. "Our informant has explained that they are preparing the Kido Cannon."

Senna's eyes widened. "What? They're going to destroy everything! They're destroying the dimension!" She stomped around, upset.

Naruto was caught on one detail.

They had someone on the inside of the Seireitei feeding them information. A mole within the Soul Society on the side of the Blanks. He was shocked at the implications.

"They are going to save me," Naruto said, breaking their concentration. "They are going to send a team of powerful fighters to rescue me, just you wait. They'll stop this whole operation."

Ganryu grinned. "That's the problem, Naruto. They aren't."

His heart skipped a beat, his throat tightening and his chest twisting in near agony. His muscles were burning from having to hold his arms up in this place for so long, but it could do nothing to stop the pain of this revelation.

"What? No, that's not true! You're lying!"

His mind flashed through the information he knew. The informant... could it have known about his disappearance and the orders to destroy this place, as well as Seireitei's plan to ignore the fact that he was still here and destroy the dimension anyway? He still did not know everything about the place he was in, but it felt too different from the World of the Living in a spiritual sense. Was it a separate dimension somehow?

What of the informant? How could the mole know so much high-profile information?

* * *

Momo could not sit still when she received the orders that the Kido Corps were preparing the use of the Kido Cannon, one of the most powerful weapons in all of the Soul Society. With the fear that Naruto could be caught from the blast, she had to hope that they would send a team in to find him.

Almost on cue, the child-like captain appeared before her. He seemed very upset and she had to know what was wrong.

"Central 46 denied the request to send a team into the Valley of Screams to save Naruto," he explained, his voice quivering as he said it. With anger? Sadness? Fear? Momo could not tell which. "They are going to go through with the plan to destroy the dimension to stop its expansion."

"What?" asked Momo, a tear forming in her eye. It felt like her heart had been ripped from her body. "Wha... they can't do that! They can't kill him... They can't!"

For a long moment, Toshiro and Momo held each other for comfort, tears streaming down the brunette's face.

"Why, Lil'Shiro? Wh-why would they want to hurt him?"

"They don't want to hurt him, Momo. They are doing what is best for the sake of both worlds. Naruto is simply a casualty to them, a speed-bump in the grand scheme of things."

She pushed away from him angrily. "How can they say that, Toshiro!? How can they act like he does not matter?"

He did not comment, trying to stay cool and collected.

"Let's rescue him! We can do it, you and I! We'll head to the Valley of Screams ourselves and save him!" Hinamori practically grabbed her sword and prepared to head straight there, but Toshiro shook his head and grabbed her wrist.

"Momo, you can't defy Central 46, as much as it pains me to admit that. We... we cannot risk ourselves and our career by trying to save him."

She collapsed to the ground and he held her, the two of them clutching each other for support.

It was not long before there was a flash of light from the sky, and the two of them looked up.

Out of the mirage in the sky came several white, spiraling tendrils of energy. They moved quickly, diving through the air above the city which should have been impossible. The reiatsu coming from each of them was thick and potent, powerful enough that they seemed able to cut right through the barrier-like dome over the city, a stunning flash of light.

Toshiro's eyes widened with shock. "They... they are heading for the Kido Cannon on Sokyoku Hill!"


	9. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

Beacons of spiritual pressure, foreign reiatsu, filled the area, even as far into the Squad Thirteen barracks as she was now. Captain Ukitake had arrived only a few moments before, but he had yet to address the situation.

Rukia could not believe that Fourth Seat Uzumaki had been taken, and she could not figure out why. Maybe he angered someone; it wouldn't be the first time someone held something against him. She knew that all too well.

The unseated shinigami sighed as she considered it, but when Kiyone burst into the room, she was shocked.

"Everyone, you have to see this! I've gotta get the captain!"

Rukia watched as she left, and a crowd of shinigami flocked toward the exit and the windows. Several people gasped, afraid.

White tendrils that seemed to be moving, like they were made of individual parts, dove from the sky, passing through the force field over the city with only a flash of light, like there was no resistance at all. They were headed toward Sokyoku Hill, and she really needed to know what was happening.

The white-haired captain appeared, a shocked expression on his face. He tried to quell the chaotic question shot at him, questions about invasions and enemies and Naruto's kidnapping. "All right, settle down. The orders we've received are to spread ourselves thin and continue to monitor the World of the Living. Everyone head to the Fifth Seats for your new assignments, because we still have a duty to protect the human souls of the dearly departed. The other squads are going to move against this attack, so you need to do a good job and support them by ensuring that the balance between the souls of the living and the souls of the dead is not tipped."

It took several more minutes before everyone calmed enough to start actively receiving new assignments and to communicate with those who were already on assignments in the World of the Living. Rukia, seeing the opportunity to finally help out and receive an assignment, approached but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Why not, Captain? I've not gone to the World of the Living in so long. He doesn't trust me to take care of myself, does he?"

Ukitake shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Perhaps you can assist the others in organizing these assignments?"

She nodded slightly, crestfallen at the idea of her brother controlling her time on her own squad. The captain started walking toward his own quarters, when Rukia realized that she had to ask.

"What about Naruto? What are we going to do to save him?"

The man paused, his back turned away from her. "We... we can't do anything. I... I'll be waiting on the order to help in the fight if they need me, so otherwise, just help in whatever way that you can."

The petite shinigami frowned, her mind far too busy with worry and fear that everything would not end well. The battle over the Kido Cannon had already begun, with only the Kido Corps to guard it until others could arrive. In a few short hours, the worlds would cease to exist, unless they protected the cannon, used it against the Valley of Screams, and stopped its advance. In the process, they would kill Naruto Uzumaki. She was not sure how she should feel about this, but she felt helpless to stop any of it.

The Fourth Seat of Squad Thirteen was hungry, tired, and angry. He was still shackled together by the strange material, unable to escape but at least able to move legs. He had tried to use Shunpo to get away the moment that they had removed him from the building, but he was still so restricted, even with his own spiritual power, that he had stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, unable to get free.

He turned to look at the people around him, Senna and Ganryu as well as a contingent of Blanks. They looked fearsome, their reiatsu level strong enough that Naruto would still find trouble with them in large numbers, especially without his shikai.

He cursed how slow his bankai training was going, wishing that he had had it the moment this bastard had tried to kidnap him back in the Seireitei. He was convinced that they could not have stopped him if they had even tried.

Senna would not stop talking and asking him questions about his slowly growing memories. Naruto walked around with a constant headache, flashbulbs occasionally going off but the content did not seem major at all. Little bits and pieces of irrelevant information, and he didn't feel like they were changing him at all when learning them. Either way, he really wished that she would shut up.

Naruto kept quiet as they lead him through the World of the Living very slowly. They needed him for something, some information that would be necessary for their plans. Naruto knew enough to not divulge information, and they wouldn't kill him without learning it. The tricky problem was that he still did not know what they were looking for, and he had to play along at least a little bit so that they felt he was being cooperative.

He wished he had his sword, but his zanpakutou was still out of his reach. It had confused him at first that Ganryu would even bring it along, but maybe it was a gesture of good faith to him somehow. He wasn't going to question him about it, however, because knowing it was stashed in a pack on Ganryu's back was enough for him.

The area they were traveling through was filled with trees and rivers, the place seemed untouched by nature. Naruto was not sure why, but there were certain landmarks, trees or boulders, that seemed familiar to him. Had he been here in his past life?

Senna was still practically clutching him the entire time they had been trekking here, since they had used the Blanks to travel through the Dangai into the World of the Living. She seemed happy just to be near him, and it was hard not to find that a little endearing. She seemed to have a good personality, other than the fact that she was kidnapping people for her own benefit.

"And this was the site of a glorious battle!" she said as they passed into a clearing. It did not seem any different to him than any other clearing, but upon further inspection, he could see scars in the trees that were actually very interesting. And familiar. The ground seemed a little bit softer, and he realized he was remembering something about it.

A redhead with some kind of freakish arm made of veined sand slammed a pink-haired girl into a tree, holding her there and taunting anyone to come forward. A boy with jet black hair shaped strangely in the front as opposed to the back crouched on a tree limb, his dark crimson eyes intensely staring at his opponent.

The memory was so sudden, leaving him as quickly as it had come, but his attention was on the girl with pink hair more than anything. He did not see enough of her to be sure, but it was an astounding coincidence nonetheless.

Sakura?

The pink-haired Fourth-Seat of Squad Four blasted through the city, leading a medical team behind her in the hopes that they could help quell the rising chaos. A battle was brewing near Sokyoku Hill, where the Kido Cannon had been stationed.

She had responded as quickly the minute that Lieutenant Isane gave her the order through a Hell Butterfly. She had been worried about Naruto's capture, but she was more worried about how Momo felt about that.

Nevertheless, she shot through the city giving orders to her team members so that they would be prepared. The Blanks were spreading throughout the city from the top of the Hill like a plague, trying to stop any high-ranking officers from being able to pursue them. There were most likely injured civilians and injured squad members, and she knew she could help defend her team if need be.

The closer they got to the fighting, the easier it was to assess the situation. There were enough Blanks that it was like a horde or even a small army that had descended upon the city like a swarm of locusts, with the Dark Ones in command if her sensing skills were good enough to locate the reiatsu signatures.

She grimaced when she felt the conflicting signatures atop the Hill, and it was easy to tell there were a lot more of the enemy on top than the defenders. No one had anticipated an invasion of this rate, but the Kido Corps were not trained for combat to this magnitude. The most they could do was protect the weapon with barriers and attack the weaker enemies, while the Dark Ones were likely going to overwhelm them.

She tried to search for any familiar signatures, but none came to her mind. There was too much static as is, too much happening at once and it was nearly too hard to concentrate.

"You three, head to the north side, and you three to the south. Assist the fighters as much as you can, but your priority is the wounded. Is that clear?"

They replied with a resounding "Yes, ma'am," and split up. The remaining team looked at her expectantly, and Sakura merely rolled up her sleeves.

"We're going to push through to the top," she explained to the last three members. "The Kido Corps is up there, and we need to make a path for the others."

"What about Squad Eleven? Don't you think they're already trying?" asked the Seventh Seat.

She nodded, thinking of Tenten. "Yeah, they probably are. We can give them medical backup so they can keep fighting, as well as contribute to some of the fighting ourselves. Let's go."

The Fourth Seat of Squad Eleven hated the fact that her attacks were practically useless. The girl with panda ears for hair poured as much reiatsu as she could into each strike, a move taught to her by Ikkaku and even the Captain. But Tenten could not make a significant mark when each Blank she cut down was replaced by another.

"Damn," she cursed under her breath, sprinting up the side of the Hill and waving her katana through the air, knocking the falling Blanks away from her and into the mass of fighting below. "Good try, but you gotta do better than that."

She spotted Ikkaku, the bald Third Seat using his signature sword and sheathe style in the distance. He was making a little more impact than her, but even he was unable to stop them all.

She kicked a Blank away from her from her place on the zig-zagging staircase leading up to the top of the Hill, the white creature spinning through the air and exploding away from her. She cursed that nasty trick under her breath, hearing more exploding Blanks occurring all around her. These bastards had no honor.

She jumped off of the stairs and landed in the circle that Ikkaku had cut, joining him back to back. "You having any luck?"

He grunted his reply, throwing another enemy off of him as he did. "Not really. A lot of our squad is down, and the Captain has not appeared yet."

She frowned, using her entire body to shove another Blank into the crowd around them, and then slashing diagonally, the creatures dissipating from the process.

"What about Yumichika? Where is he?"

"He left the join the other side of the attackers, trying to bolster their confidence and help tear through the enemy line," the man explained. "I hate to say this, but I think these guys are too tough to stop holding back this much."

Tenten nodded, understanding completely where he was coming from. "Transform, Yukai Datsu!" There was a dark green flash of light and her sword melted into a hovering pile of twisting, liquid metal. She held the hilt in her hand, the only untransformed part, and swiped her hand through the air.

Instantly the blob of goo split apart, formed into spinning shuriken, and radiated outwards at a wide array of enemies. The spinning stars of metal embedded in the Blanks, eliminating them before returning to hover near her.

"Extend, Hozukimaru!" Madarame's blade shifted into a naginata seemingly made of wood, with a short blade on one end and a red tassel on the other end.

He flashed toward the enemy, stabbing and swinging relentlessly and destroying several Blanks in only a few moves of his weapon. He blocked one Blank's strike, his spear splitting into three. He then hit the white enemy with the pommel, throwing it backwards and stabbing into it with the blade.

Tenten formed an ornate battleaxe, attached to the hilt of her weapon, and used it both offensive and defensively. She eyed the battlefield as best as she could, trying to get a good idea on where she could break through the line and help others get to the top.

Pain erupted in her shoulder, a white mantis-like claw ripped from it. She angrily twisted, ignoring the pain and cutting the Blank's head off with one swing. "Shit," she muttered, trying to ignore the blood running down her back.

She heard someone scream to her right and turned to see a familiar figure running through Blanks with only Hakuda, snapping arms in half, punching through enemies until she started making her way up the staircase leading up to the top of the Hill. The pink-haired medical shinigami never even touched her blade once, making Tenten marvel at her willingness and her pure physical strength.

Tenten followed her, using her Shunpo to join her and shifting her axe into a long metal bo staff, using the weapon to throw enemies off of the stairs and into the ground below. "Need some help?"

Sakura nodded, looking at the many flights of stairs ahead. She punched at the light red head of a Blank, throwing it several feet backwards into another Blank before it dissipated. "Yeah, we need to let the others know to follow us. We need to make a formation that allows us to cover all sides and head up the staircase."

Tenten nodded, knowing that brute force was not exactly working at this point. "That's not a bad strategy."

"Well, over time, guys like Shikamaru start to rub off on you," she explained, hurling another enemy away from her and kicking a blade strike away from her body. "We just need to figure out a way to break through."

Tenten nodded, promising to figure out a way to let the others know about their formation plan. She looked toward the top of the stairs, where even more Blanks were coming. They just did not seem to stop flowing, their white forms descending on them like clouds of fog.

"Here, we're nearly there," explained Ganryu, making a motion for the entire contingent to stop. "Naruto, we need you to procure something for us. We already know what it is, but we believe that only you can handle this. You can do so in a trusting manner, if you will. Is this clear?"

Naruto rolled his eyes. "It would be a little bit clearer if I knew what I was trying to get."

Senna frowned. "Don't be hasty, it will all make sense soon. Let's keep moving, the village is only a few minutes away."

The village?

Naruto's eyes widened at the prospect. Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves. He... he was finally going home. He did not know how to feel about that, let alone deal with it. It all suddenly clicked to him; they were taking him to the village where he grew up, the hopes that he would be able to understand the knowledge hidden within his memories and help them understand the memories themselves.

They passed through the last section of woods, entering a path that felt so familiar that his mind opened to the memory of he and a group of four others leaving hurriedly to pursue someone, four others who seemed to be around his age. Sakura appeared again in his mind, tears flowing freely from her eyes as she begged for him to save someone named Sasuke and bring him home.

He shook his head in response, finally looking forward. His eyes widened with shock.

The great doors that once served as the gate of the village were in shambles, the entire wall broken apart as far as the eyes could see and reduced to pure rubble. He could see the remains of the village ahead, very few buildings left standing. The large stone mountain that had once been a great monument to the Hokage was broken apart, the only face remaining a man wearing what looked to be bandages over his head and face.

Nothing about it looked like his former home. It did not feel right, did not feel normal. Why was it in ruins? Did this have something to do with how he died? Not even what was left of the Hokage Monument looked right, that face did not seem like it should belong.

"What?" asked Naruto. "What happened to this place?"

Senna looked toward him, frowning. "Aww, Naruto! Don't be upset! Your home might be gone, but there's no reason to fret! There are some survivors."

"Survivors?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon, I promise!" The girl turned to Ganryu. "Get rid of the Blanks for now, we don't want to seem like a threat." The Blank souls without memories were drawn into Ganryu's body, a perverse sight that left the blonde a little disgusted.

Naruto was still utterly confused. "A threat? How are these survivors going to see us as a threat at all? They're human, aren't they? They can't see us unless we have gigais."

Senna smiled. "Don't worry, they aren't exactly normal humans."

The shinigami was still all too confused at what they wanted him for. Why was he necessary for anything? What did they need really need him for?

"Naruto, your job is to help us infiltrate the group," Ganryu explained. "They'll trust you, and you can get them to trust us. Before you ask any more questions, I probably need to explain why you're here. If you don't cooperate, I'll kill the survivors of your homeland myself. Do you understand?"

Shikamaru really, really disliked major fighting like this, but his mind was working as hard as he could to ensure the safety of the formation. He could see the Squad Eleven Fifth Seat tearing through enemies as gracefully as the shinigami could, with more in Squad Eleven backing him up.

The Third Seat of Squad Eight had been working through several strategies but they did not seem to be working as well as he had expected. The sheer numbers of the enemy and their annoying ability to self-destruct had put down many, many members of his own squad and many other squads.

He assessed the situation and what squads were even present. Squad Four was there for medical support, spreading themselves thin across the entire battlefield to allow them to help many others. Squad Two and the Stealth Force were lying in wait, sending small sub teams through the cracks in the enemies defense, but even they were unable to cut through. Squad Three and Squad Five were both working to relay information to Squad One about the battle, while Squad Twelve waited with the SRDI to monitor the entire fight. Squads Six, Seven, and Eight were holding the defensive line of their own, while pushing outward slowly. Squads Ten and Eleven were like a massive combat force, causing chaos among the enemy, but both were limited without their commanders on the field. Squad Thirteen had yet to join the fight, trying to continue monitoring the World of the Living and ensuring that souls still migrated, even in the time of distress.

He sighed, knowing that the full force of more than half of the Squads should be enough to tear through these Blanks, but there were too many of them.

If the captains were to join the fight, he was certain that the tide would change. But he had to make due at the moment, and it was up to him to get the shinigami of Squad Eight around him to act as a cohesive fighting force.

When he was sure he had a possible plan, he stood up from where he had been kneeling, drawing his sword and getting their attention.

"Eight, to arms! Delta position, heavy hitters on the front and start moving toward the staircase." Those around him started relaying the orders to the others around him, and soon enough, Squad Eight had formed into an arrowhead like position, pointed toward the bottom of the stairs.

Shikamaru felt his was the best he could do in this situation, and it seemed to be handling it very well. He used his speed to deliver blows that they could hardly react to, before they could use the damage against him. He kept his mind focused on the task at hand, not letting it wander toward his inward worry for Naruto. The guy had a knack for getting out of sticky situations, that much was sure.

Somewhere nearby, there was the sound of electricity and even the boom of thunder, and everyone nearly gasped from the shock. The Third Seat of Squad Nine, Samui, was leading the charge, second only to Lieutenant Hisagi. Her dual-bladed Lightning-Type zanpakutou was arcing electricity through several enemies at once, each swing of the electric bolt-shaped steel sending arcing energy blasts into the Blanks. It was powerful, that much was sure.

Shikamaru was glad for their ability to use shikai, but his own shikai would not be useful here. He had to make due with what he could, binding enemies with Bakudo and attacking with his speed. He noticed that Squad Nine was adapting his own formation, heading toward the staircase from a different direction, and he couldn't help but realize that it wouldn't work. The stairs heading to the top were too narrow for that many enemies at once, and he had to signal to them not to go with that formation.

"Damn. How troublesome."

Naruto had not expected to see anyone in the village, the village that was clearly destroyed. He didn't know how it happened, but he had not expected to find anyone inside.

Despite that, he hid behind a collapsed building and looked around the corner, where he found some standing buildings, buildings that looked and reminded him of the clan compounds from when he was alive. He couldn't tell which clan this was, or even remember what the clans were, but nonetheless, there were some buildings that were still in good shape. Why would anyone live here in the ruined village in the first place?

His hands were no longer bound, but Ganryu was watching his every move and planned to kill the survivors if he gave even the slightest hint to escape. He didn't have his zanpakutou, and considering that the man could recall the Blanks at any given moment, he couldn't be sure he could use Kido or get away in time. He was momentarily bound by obligation to ensure that the survivors were safe, feeling tied to them despite not knowing who they were or remembering a lot about them. There were too many variables for him to react rashly.

Someone left a building on the compound, and Senna pointed the person out to him excitedly. He shot her hand down. "Quiet, we're waiting a moment, all right?" She frowned at him but did not pursue. "You're going to stay here."

The person was a very old woman holding a cane. If she were a shinigami, she would clearly be rivaling Captain Yamamoto, at least in appearance. She seemed well in shape, but she was frail and moving very slowly. He was not sure why she was moving all by herself, but Naruto needed to know who she was.

The lady turned just so that the sunlight caught her face, watching the blank, nondescript blue sky. Naruto looked toward it himself, glad to not have to look at the mirage of the Soul Society reflected over it. Karakura Town was directly below the hole in the sky, and they were rather far away from it at this point. It seemed like several hundred miles, but it probably was not that far.

He watched her eyes and her gray hair and realized with a fearful gasp that he knew who she was. The pale lavender eyes were unmistakable, but there was something new about them.

"Hinata?" he said aloud, Senna watching him closely as he said it. I'm glad she lived that long.

"Go on, Naruto. You need to make your presence known; their eyes can see you."

He gaped at her. "Really?" That didn't seem like it should be right. "How is that possible?" Senna, however, was gone.

He took a deep breath and walked closer slowly, thinking she would notice his approach and possibly freak out. She was simply walking slowly from one house to the next, a kind of urgency in her step but unable to move quickly with the cane.

He passed near the front gate, preparing to leap over it, when she suddenly stopped and looked, her eyes activated.

His heart plummeted as he watched her, the shock slowly spreading across her face. She said something that he could not hear, but the blonde could only wave his hand and grin. He was consciously trying to do things that made himself seem trustworthy. Things that he did as a child.

"Naruto?" the woman asked, her voice not quivering at all.

"Um, hello, Hinata."

The woman looked at him with confusion for a moment, before shaking her head. "No, Hinata was my sister. I'm Hanabi. But this is not even possible. You're dea-"

"Yeah, I know. I'm dead," he explained, realizing this whole interaction might be harder than he thought initially. "Sorry..."

Sakura was halfway up the stairs, along with the rest of her planned formation, when she realized something was coming. Coming directly for her. She threw up her arms to block the strike and protect her face, but realized very quickly that it was not a direct attack. She only reacted just fast enough to catch the crossbow shot in mid-air, just before it hit her face.

The culprit was one of them, falling toward her from the sky and focusing all of her attention on her for some reason. The woman's purple hair was flowing behind her, the dark green and black armor looking rather expensive. Another crossbow bolt nearly impaled her shoulder, but she spun out of the way and leaped into the air to meet the woman, aiming a well-placed fist.

"Hand-to-hand? I was aiming for someone strong, but if this is all you have, maybe I should find another to attack!" the woman shouted with a grimace, as though this were a game. Sakura caught the next strike on her left bicep, the bolt grazing her and cutting into her skin.

The pink-haired shinigami ignored the pain, her fist colliding with the enemy in mid-air. Sakura then grabbed her, flipped both of their positions, and kicked off of the woman's body powerfully, to better control her fall.

Just after the crunch of the purple-haired Ryodoji's fall, she landed in a crouch, the ground cracking slightly under the reiatsu she was using to protect her descent. "Just who do you think you people are, attacking this place!? You're going to destroy the entire world! You're going to destroy all the worlds!"

The woman cursed as she stood up from the fight. Sakura was slightly lucky that the Blanks around her were busy, but she had a feeling that the Ryodoji in front of her knew how to control them and could change that very quickly.

"No, we are going to destroy every other world!" the enemy explained, causing Sakura to question the woman's sanity.

"If you went through with your plan, do you not realize that you would destroy the Valley of Screams too?"

The woman screeched, strafing to the side and firing another crossbow shot at her. "You would think that, wouldn't you!? Is that what they want you to know?"

Sakura rolled out of the way of the shot, before realizing there were three more, and soon she was trying to dodge an entire volley, somehow shot from that crossbow so rapidly that it was nothing. She had no idea how this weapon was working, but she could feel almost no reiatsu from it at all. Was it even a zanpakutou?

The medical shinigami held up a hand. "Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!" The pale blue wave of cackling fire erupted at the enemy, incinerating quite a few crossbow bolts, but the woman proved fast enough to slip out of the way of the attack, only receiving partial wounds on her left arm.

"You'll pay for that!" the woman cursed, aiming her weapon again and firing from afar once more. Sakura held both arms in front of her and quickly formed an incantation-less Enkousen, a barrier of spinning yellow energy blocking the projectiles. From there, Sakura pushed herself off of the ground toward the right, keeping her spinning shield in front of her for a few more seconds.

"You're not going to do anything to me," Sakura taunted. "I mean, you can try, but we're evenly matched. I'd even go so far as to say I'm better."

"Better?" the Ryodoji laughed. "Yeah, right." The purple-haired woman began to gather the white Blanks around her, their forms turning into a gaseous wisp of smoke before becoming part of her, and Sakura could easily tell that she was upgrading her power more and more with every Blank she absorbed. "I'll show you who's better!"

"Incapacitate, Dokushibireru!" Sakura shouted, her sword instantly changing shape until the shinigami was holding what looked like a thin rapier blade, the end tapering off to a point that reminded her of a needle on a syringe. She stabbed forward, her spiritual pressure ejecting from the end of the needle and colliding with the oncoming enemy.

"Wow, that hurt so much," the woman deadpanned, continuing her assault, forcing Sakura to evade the close-range shot of the crossbow. "You're really doing a great job here."

"Don't underestimate me!" Sakura yelled, chasing after the woman and knocking bolts out of the sky with swings of her needle sword. "There's a reason why my zanpakutou's shikai command is 'Incapacitate.' Any guesses as to why?"

The purple-haired woman nearly began to argue, but her words stuttered out of her mouth before they even began. "Wha.. what did..?"

"My zanpakutou emits a substance that inactivates the kinetic energy of your spiritons, which will slowly numb your entire body," explained Sakura, her expression much more calm now that she knew that she had won that particular fight. "You're going to have a lot of trouble moving from here on out. Eventually, you'll stop altogether."

The woman's face grew more and more upset and twisted, and without warning, she screamed and began absorbing as many Blanks as she could see, and Sakura's eyes widened. She jumped backwards a bit more, realizing very quickly that the woman had overpowered her shikai's effect, and was continually getting stronger and stronger.

Sakura made to use a Bakudo, but the spell did not even stick, no matter how much force she tried to add to it. Sakura realized that even if she wanted to use her shikai again, she couldn't until she had the time to build up again, and it probably would not work anyway.

"Damn it," she muttered.

Shikamaru cut into the left shoulder of a Blank, killing yet another as he finally reached a large overhang about three-fourths of the way up. The members of his squad were scattered up and down the staircase, fighting against the horde that just would not end. It was almost appalling to think that these creatures did not have a limit; he had surmised from the briefing that these Blanks constitute the entire Valley of Screams. Was it really possible the dimension was this large?

Something approached on his spiritual senses, and Shikamaru bolted from his position, dodging a shuriken just before it could hit him. The Squad Eight Third Seat twisted in time to see a pale man with dark hair approaching carrying a wide blade that almost looked like an extended arrowhead. The man swung but Shikamaru brought up his own blade to dodge it.

"Give up now and we won't kill you," the pale Ryodoji offered, but Shikamaru did not even comment, letting his sword swing do the talking.

He rushed backwards, glad there was enough room on the outcropping for a battle like this. The Ryodoji flicked his sword at him, unleashing another hidden shuriken from the blade that Shikamaru managed to block with his blade.

"It's going to take more than that to get me," the brunette muttered, his mind racing to figure out what this guy's deal is. He seemed almost nervous, afraid to get that close to anyone. More shuriken headed in Shikamaru's direction, and the evasive shinigami was able to avoid them fairly easily while he wracked his brain for a plan.

There were still quite a few troops fighting all around them, most concentrated on the stairs. Only a few yards behind him, the outcropping dropped off until there was nothing left but a great fall. The top of the cliff and the Kido Cannon were only about one hundred yards directly upward, and Shikamaru was not even sure that the Kido Corps had managed to hold out this long.

His opponent seemed to be a long distance fighter, but still had the capability to fight at a close-range. He figured that the guy was better at long distance, so the best thing to do was to find a way into the man's guard.

Shikamaru unleashed his shikai without the command, setting his plan into motion. His weapon faded into his shadow, and the Dark One was curious as to why he would throw away his own weapon. "You're probably going to need that thing against a guy like me, you know."

Nara laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right. I don't feel like learning Hakuda, and memorizing Kido is such a chore." Shikamaru dodged a group of shuriken, the ammo being replenished using the Blanks all around him as the materials. The Ryodoji would manipulate the white memory-less wandering souls into the weapon, creating another shuriken for each one.

Shikamaru only further realized that this fighter was a definite specialist in long-range fighting, based on how he was using these Blanks. The Third Seat flipped to the right using only his hands, pushing off with his wrist as leverage, and landing in a crouch several yards away.

His shadow soldier for a shikai suddenly appeared behind the enemy, and with a single mental command from Shikamaru, his sword tore through the pale fighter's back.

There was a scream of terror as he considered his fate, before he turned quickly and started dueling with the shadow fighter. Shikamaru's zanpakutou could react as quickly as the shinigami's thoughts, parrying strikes before they even happened. Shikamaru tried planning ahead, working well enough to knock the blade from the Ryodoji's hand.

"It's over for you," Shikamaru warned. "Bakudo Number Sixty-two: Hyapporankan!" The shinigami materialized a blue rod of energy before hurling it like a javelin, the rod splitting in mid-air and impaling the Dark One against the wall, blood dripping to the ground.

"It's not over yet," the man warned through gurgling blood, raising a bound hand that could only move around the wrist and instantly calling as many Blanks as he could. The Ryodoji inhaled them and suddenly grew more and more powerful, powerful enough that the rods holding him down were suddenly not enough.

Shikamaru's eyes widened with surprise as they burst, shattering into a million pieces like simple glass. The opponent stood quickly, his sword returning to his hand, and he rushed at Shikamaru with newfound power, power that easily dwarfed his own. "Captain-level? That's impossible!"

The shadowy zanpakutou warrior intercepted the man's attack, the two dueling for supremacy and Shikamaru was not going to let that bastard get the better of him. A cut grazed along his thigh, the same place where the shadow was just struck, and Shikamaru realized that it would not be that easy.

Naruto sat at the table, wishing that this whole thing could speed up a little bit. He knew what was at stake here, knew now after Ganryu's explanation that all the worlds were in danger. There could only be a short time left, and if they didn't succeed quickly, there would be no World of the Living to save. No Soul Society to save.

Hanabi seemed to not live alone. While her husband had apparently passed away, her children and grandchildren seemed to be here at the time, as well as their husbands and wives. It was easy to tell who were her children among all the visitors, as they seemed to have the Hyuuga bloodline trait, the Byakugan. Naruto did not remember much about it, but he could not forget those pale eyes. Even so, there was something different about them, something that was probably the reason why they could see him in the first place.

One of her granddaughters was very much pregnant, her dark hair and pale eyes a trademark of the Hyuuga clan.

"Well, Konohamaru would never believe me for a minute if he knew you had appeared to us," Hanabi said when the non-Hyuuga had been ushered out of the room. Naruto did not like all the eyes he had trained on him, he felt there was infinitely more pressure on him now. At least three pairs of eyes could see him, apart from Hanabi herself. "He always loved you from the minute he met you, and he was sad to see you go."

Naruto looked downcast for a moment, his brain wracking. An image of a young boy's face, a young boy who dreamed of becoming Hokage, the grandson of the Third. "You and he were married, weren't you?"

Hanabi nodded, not seeming to want to cry about it. She just seemed a little sad. "The love of my life. You know, my sister was always in love with you. She passed away a few years back, but she lived a long and happy life."

Naruto considered the possibilities for a moment. If Hinata had died at an old age, she would probably be in the Rukongai. He wondered if he could find her, at least to see her one last time.

"I... I don't think I ever knew when I was little," he muttered, the impending doom on his mind but unable to get himself to the point. "But... Hanabi, how exactly can you even see me? I never knew that the Byakugan could see spirits, and that seems like something that would have been public knowledge."

"Mom was the first Hyuuga to ever unlock a secondary level to the Byakugan, one that helped our clan gain even further clarity in our vision. We were even able to look past the material world and experience pure spiritual energy, or yin, for ourselves," one of the women behind him began, apparently the daughter of Hinata. "She attributed that feat to you, Uzumaki. It was always one of her favorite stories to tell, about how you inspired her to reach past herself."

Naruto grinned at the situation, looking around. "It's a nice place you've got here, despite all the rubble. Why do you live here in the ruins anyway?"

Hanabi laughed. "Well, I'm a stubborn old bat who doesn't like change. My children, for the most part, do not live here but live in a compound several miles from here. Close enough that they can watch over me, but not so close they are in the village anymore."

"She would get into all kinds of trouble if we didn't," explained the pregnant Hyuuga, and Naruto laughed.

"So how did I die?" He asked that question in the hopes it might lead to the next question, the whole point of this visit.

The woman looked toward him, her face frowning. She shared a look with her children, the eldest of which was a man with a seemingly powerful presence.

"I'll try to give you the short version, maybe it will help you remember the details on your own. I think... I think it was about a year after the Uchiha left the village," she explained, Naruto's memory flashing to the image of a black-haired boy with dark crimson eyes. "The Akatsuki kidnapped you and you were never seen again. A some point a few years later, it was revealed that the Kyuubi had been extracted, and that is how we believe you passed away."

Naruto was fixated on only one detail. The Kyuubi.

"The rest of the villages managed to stop the Akatsuki, but in the process, the damn Kyuubi was taken by the Hidden Cloud Village," the eldest of the three Sarutobi-Hyuuga began, the man with an unmistakable prideful look. It reminded him of Byakuya. "They were unable to actually make a successful Jinchuuriki, but that did not stop them from declaring war on us several years later. Over time, the village was wrecked by more war and more attacks, but Dad managed to steal the urn back."

"The urn?" asked Naruto, the detail not unknown to him.

"The Kohaku no Jouhei," explained Hanabi. "It was how the Cloud managed to seal the biju for so long. We managed to retrieve it, but without the right person, it's useless."

"Oh, come on, Grandma," the pregnant Hyuuga said. "It's not like we have a reason to need a Jinchuuriki anyway. It's fine where it is."

Naruto let them talk after that, only responding to questions or giving answers when they directly involved him. They were having a discussion about the wars that the Hidden Leaf had fought since Naruto's death, some great battles and great figures from history he had not lived long enough to see. He was not even half listening.

He was worried about how to ask the next question. This entire situation was terrible. With Ganryu hiding somewhere nearby, it would only take him seconds to wipe out the family if he did not do what the Ryodoji wanted. He cursed under his breath and turned to them, trying to think of a good way to ask the question.

"So... where is the Kyuubi after all?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dokushibireru loosely translates to "Numb Poison."


	10. Reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or Naruto or any related characters or properties.

Naruto was not sure why he was here, why he was allowing himself to be played like a fiddle like this. The Byakugan-wielders all around him were smiling amicably as they walked alongside him, guiding him down underneath the Hokage Monument. They had passed through several booby traps, traps that were not reactivated as they went. Naruto realized that was why Ganryu needed him to come down here first, to get them to turn off the sealing arrays for the traps present.

"You've asked  _us_  a lot of questions," said Hanabi. "What happens when you die?"

The blonde shinigami watched the older woman with a sense of dread, seeing her mortality right before his eyes. She was very old, probably close to dying of old age. He frowned at the thought.

"Well, it's complicated," he explained, referring to the set of rules that no human can know of the afterlife until they become a whole waiting for konso or hollow encroachment. "I'm... not at liberty to say."

She nodded. "So there is some structure, I take it? Some kind of rule?"

He nervously bobbed his head, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, you could say that. You really got to the bottom of that."

She laughed. "Sorry. I've just lived long enough to pick up on things. Can you at least tell me one thing?" Naruto was going to shake his head, but she continued before he could. "Is it nice?"

Images of poverty-stricken districts of Rukongai came to his mind, the crime and even sometimes sickness that comes from them. He was lucky to have come from an inner district, but he had seen the outer districts with his own eyes while on duty many years ago.

The kind expression on her face, the concern she held for what would happen to her. What had happened to Konohamaru. He smiled, realizing that he couldn't tell her the whole truth. "It is nice."

They passed through another underground corridor, a corridor that was decorated with torches covering the walls. It ended at a massive ornate door, and sealing tags were arranged in an interesting combination. Naruto wished he knew something about Sealing Jutsu, but it's not like the information would do him any good right now.

Three of the shinobi approached the door and began dispelling the seals, in a manner that reminded Naruto a certain spiky-haired pervert. It brought a smile to his face.

The door finally opened with one last seal release, and Naruto was beckoned inside of the chamber.

It was a large chamber, surprisingly full of weapons, objects, and other things of great wealth. It was a large vault of a huge number of shinobi artifacts, but the greatest of which was sitting in the center of the room.

The Kohaku no Jouhei, the Sealing Urn. It was a waist-high, yellow vase with the kanji for "Lightning" written on the front in red and a rope tying the lid closed. Inside that urn was the Kyuubi, the monster that had once been inside of him and what was once the political lynchpin of the Hidden Leaf Village. It may have been the only reason why the Leaf had lasted as long as it did, the presence of a jinchuuriki one of the only things preventing war from all fronts.

"There it is," Hanabi said. "We went through a lot to get that back during the last war with the Hidden Cloud Village." The woman walked toward it, putting her hand on the vase. "Even though we couldn't use the biju anymore than the Cloud without an Uzumaki like you, we still couldn't risk it getting into the wrong hands."

Naruto approached the vase himself, the Hyuuga watching him silently, their piercing gazes unnerving him. He felt self-conscious, knowing what he was going to do, but if he didn't do it soon, Ganryu would kill them.

He took a deep breath, and then reached down and grabbed the vase, sprinting toward the door as fast as he could. He could not go fast with the heavy object, the object that he was surprised he could even interact with. He was immaterial, but somehow picking up a material object? The urn's sealing array might have been the culprit, but it still seemed strange that he could interact with the object.

"What are you doing, Naruto?" Hanabi called out for him.

Something suddenly struck his back, and he was reminded painfully of a battle long ago, fought at the end of the Chunin Exams. The Gentle Fist taijutsu had collided with his back, sending him sprawling to the ground and the vase rolling across the ground.

Naruto deserved that strike, and he was secretly glad that they had intervened. In some way, he was happy he had been hit, but he did not like the pain.

"What the hell is going on?" asked the man, standing fiercely in front of him with his palms held out, his advanced Byakugan shining with pale white light in the dark corridor. "You think you're going to be able to take that? Are you even Naruto, or some kind of poltergeist?"

The others caught up to them, and Naruto realized that he had to do this now or they would die. He quickly stood up, ignoring the pain in his back, and began chanting.  **"Carriage of thunder, bridge of a spinning wheel. With light, divide this into six! Bakudo Number Sixty-one: Rikujokoro!"** The blonde raised a finger and a pale yellow light erupted from his fingertip, immediately surrounding the Hyuuga that had attacked him and binding him in place. Six thin beams of light were extending from his midsection. "I've got to go. Don't worry, you aren't hurt. I've... got to get moving. I'm sorry!" He picked up the Urn and continued running back up to the surface, where he would meet up with Senna and Ganryu and head back to the Valley of Screams.

The shinobi were not about to let that be the end though, shocked at what had transpired and another male, this one looking to be no older than twenty and probably Hanabi's grandson, headed right for him. He was running through hand signs, before finally holding up a tiger seal.  **"Fire-Style! Great Fireball Jutsu!"**

The blonde's eyes widened at the sight of the scorching hot flames headed right for him, a sign of the Sarutobi clan being part of his heritage. He dipped into Shunpo, despite the short corridor, and sped to the right, dodging the flames as they collided with the wall only a few steps away from him.

He cursed and tried to remember his way out. But when the Hyuuga boy appeared before him through another passageway, he realized he had been going in circles.

"You're going down!" He flipped through more hand-signs, preparing yet another jutsu and Naruto had no clue what kind this would be. He was still barreling toward him, carrying the vase under one arm and surprised he was even able to do that.

Before the jutsu could finish, the boy suddenly stopped and there was a splatter of blood from his mouth. Naruto's eyes widened as the invisible man made himself known, apparently even invisible from the Byakugan. His sword was sticking from the boy's chest, and Naruto's heart dropped.

"What the hell are you doing?" He asked, prepared to use the Kido he had been tempted to use on Ganryu himself. But before he could, the white-haired Ryodoji grinned.

Naruto was suddenly struck with the same white liquid from earlier, the liquid once more spreading to cover his body and eventually his face, suffocating him into unconsciousness. He knew this was some kind of Blank and Kido combination but given the tight quarters, he couldn't block it. The urn dropped once more as Naruto's consciousness fell again.

* * *

Tenten hit the top, bursting over the edge and using Shunpo to head right for the enemies attacking the barrier. She stopped in mid-fall, molding her weapon into a number of falling senbon needles and hitting the enemy in all the right spots, dissipating them into wisps of smoke. There were still countless more, and it was almost impossible to really see where they were or why.

More of her squad and Squad Two shot out at the Blanks, attempting to rush them and fight to distract them from the barrier-building Kido Corps, their robes very ornate but their expressions very worn. The enemy were numerous enough that they were barely making a dent in them, and within moments, the mantis-like creatures were pushing them back toward the edge of the hill.

"Shit, these guys are not going to stop coming!" she muttered, forming a simple katana and leaping at the creatures. She had been in shikai far too long, used far too much reiryoku at the moment. She could barely keep her wits about herself as she attacked yet another Blank relentlessly, tearing it to shreds that seemed as fragile as the wind.

There was another explosion as one of her Squad went down with a suicidal Blank, and she cursed at the implications. Squad Four was heading up steadily, lead by Sakura and they would likely be here shortly. But she still felt like their casualties were only getting in the way and the wounded could die if they weren't careful.

Ikkaku burst from the crowd, his Hozukimaru still in shikai but his entire body was covered with cuts and scrapes, his face bleeding from nearly every pore. Tenten was starting to sport the same look, and she hated the fact that the blood seemed to be getting in the way.

He gunned through several enemies, before finally catching the attention of the real generals of the enemy, the Dark Ones. A large man wearing some kind of cloth over his face, and carrying two large bat-like weapons called tetsubos, headed right for them. Just to prove his strength, the man swung the bat in his right hand, and when it collided with the back of an unsuspecting member of the Stealth Force, the weapon exploded and sent the victim flying and covered in smoke.

Tenten took a deep breath and rushed at him, hoping that she would be strong enough to take him so that no one else would be damaged in the process. She kept Yukai Datsu in katana form, using as much as speed as she had left to outmaneuver him.

"Wow, you're as slow as you are ugly," Tenten taunted, slashing at the man's leg and achieving a satisfying splash of blood. "If you aren't careful, I'll beat you before you can swing those clubs of yours one more time."

"Shut up, damn it!" The man cursed and quickly spun, swinging both of them in her direction. She ducked out of the way, before swinging upward and slashing at the man's left triceps muscle, cutting into the flesh easily. "You think I'll let you beat me, you puny female!"

"Spoken like a true brute!" she said, shifting her sword and taking him by surprise, immediately creating a riot-shield and covering herself from his explosive clubs. He hit against the shield, and even from the ensuing explosion, it was durable enough to withstand both of them. "I'm not a one-trick pony like you!"

The shield melted away into a whip, and she quickly snapped it at him, cutting into his thigh and bringing him to his knee. Another transformation left her with a scythe, and she was about to bring it down on his head when she suddenly buckled over, her sword reverting to release state.

"Not now!" she yelled, her exhaustion catching up to her. The Ryodoji laughed at her plight, raising both clubs and starting a downward swing.

Ikkaku appeared in front of the attacks, jutting his spear-like weapon into the man's exposed gut. The swing stopped mid-air when the shinigami smacked against the wounded triceps muscle with the end of the spear.

Tenten scrambled out of the way, picking up her sword and trying to find a safe place to catch up. Some of her other squad members tried to form a protective line around her, as she watched Ikkaku continue to duel the explosive brute. She felt useless now, no way to actively contribute until she got some strength back. When Sakura appeared with some other medical shinigami, she would feel better about this.

* * *

The pink-haired shinigami raised her needle-like rapier zanpakutou and blocked yet another crossbow bolt, dodging the next, and attempting to pull the last out of her shoulder and diagnose the wound at the same time. The crossbow wielding Ryodoji was using her ability to manipulate the Blanks to her advantage, becoming more powerful and replenishing her ammo using their bodies.

 **"Sokatsui!"**  She shouted, a cackling blue wave of flame erupting from her palm and striking the woman on her side, just enough to hurt.

"Shit, you stupid girl!" the woman yelled, ten bolts from her weapon heading right for Sakura.

The Squad Four member was starting to remember why Squad Four should not be fighters, her combat skills wearing thinner than she wanted. Squad Four was not one to get active combat training, even with her idea of an Interdimensional Relief Team within the squad slowly starting to pass.

She sped forward, using her Hoho to slip in between crossbow shots, and then slammed a fist into the purple-haired woman's jaw, the bone cracking with a satisfying crunch. But Sakura had done nothing substantial, the moment still filled with tension as she was shot point-blank with a crossbow, the bolt stabbing directly into her stomach.

Sakura dropped to the ground, her wound serious and the blood soaking her kimono. She knew not to pull it out, but she had better things to worry about at the moment. The Ryodoji did not think that was good enough, preparing a crossbow shot to the face.

Something very fast struck the opponent's neck, a beautiful tattoo of a butterfly appearing for a split second before another strike appeared, making the butterfly spread until the enemy was so dead she would never come back, ever.

Sakura had never been more glad to see the image of Captain Soifon, Captain Aizen, Captain Ichimaru, and Captain Tousen before. The appearance of four captains on the battlefield was enough of a morale booster that the other shinigami would be emboldened by the very idea of them appearing.

"Sakura!" a voice shouted, and she looked over to see a petite girl with pale hair and an interesting braid doing down the side of her face.

"Lieutenant Isane!" she said, relieved to see her. With the lieutenant here, she would be just fine.

Sakura let herself numb to the pain of the healing Kido, trying hard not to stress about what was going on. The captains had arrived, and things would surely be looking up now.

* * *

Shikamaru coughed blood, the fighting already taken a lot out of him. He had several wounds and his powers felt drained, his lack of energy very unnerving. Although, it was not that abnormal.

He craned his neck up to see his opponent, who was lying against the cliff wall of the overhang, Shikamaru's katana sticking from the Ryodoji's chest. He cursed at the fact that he had killed the Dark One, but he was more lamenting the fact that he was probably going to die here as well if he did not receive medical attention very soon.

Several of the squads had passed this overhanging already, so the mission would likely be a success. But did he really want it to be a success? Naruto was still likely held captive within the Valley of Screams, if he wasn't dead already. If they used the Kido Cannon, did he really want Naruto to die?

"Well, you got yourself into quite the mess, huh?"

He lazily looked up to see Captain Kyoraku, his captain from Squad Eight. A sigh of relief welled through him, and even that was painful.

"Are you the only one who came?"

Shunsui shook his head. "No, there are several of the captains here to end this before it escalates. I'm going to get you down there for medical attention."

Shikamaru was not going to object, letting his captain carefully pick him up and head down to the ground-level, surprisingly fast for all the craziness going on. It seemed that all of Squad Four was now there, set-up just beyond the area around the Hill, as well as the few members scattered amongst the fighting like Sakura and her team.

The lazy Nara tried to turn off his brain, his worrying about his friends, but with the captains here, Shikamaru was starting to worry even more for Naruto's life. It was sure that the fighting would soon stop and the casualties would cease, but that would allow the Kido Cannon to fire assuming it remained protected. Naruto was one of his best friends, and he knew it was childish, but he was more concerned for him or any of his other friends than he was for anyone surrounding him on the other hospital gurneys.

* * *

Captain Hitsugaya raced up the staircase with Shunpo, gliding through the Blanks and the shinigami trading blows. He managed to arrive on top, immediately realizing that there were several people fighting on the top already. Captains even, throwing their spiritual pressure around as a threat and taking some of them out without even touching their swords. He only noticed three Ryodoji, but no matter how strong they managed to get, that would not be enough against this many Captain-class fighters.

Ikkaku, from Squad Eleven, had recently given the reins of his fight with the Ryodoji with explosive clubs called Tetsubos to Captain Ichimaru, who managed to end the fight without even needed to extend more than a hand for his sword. His Third Seat Temari was watching from the sidelines, wishing she could help him.

A man that used spinning projectile blades, blades he could make hover in the air and clone them from Blanks, was attacking Captain Aizen and trying to eliminate him with spinning volleys of his blades, but it would not be enough. Aizen was too swift on the battlefield, using Kido to deflect and destroy the blades before they even came close, until he finally ran his zanpakutou through the man with haste.

"Hmm. That could have been a little cleaner."

Samui from Squad Nine was fighting an opponent that looked to be carrying two rocket packs and sending missiles attached to cords at her, and then using the Blanks to continually restock every time he needed it. The Ryodoji was dodging Samui's Lightning-Type zanpakutou Inabikari, every spark of electricity not enough to do him in. She looked weak, tired from the fighting and wounded from several strikes across the last couple of hours.

Toshiro realized he should help her, so he rushed it, quickly drawing his zanpakutou.  **"Reign over the frosted heavens, Hyourinmaru!"** It transformed into a nodachi with a gold lotus-like guard, a green ribbon wrapped totally around his hand, and a small chain with a crescent moon-shaped pendant on the end.

He swung the sword quickly, the Chinese dragon made of ice rolling out at a ferocious speed, surprising the Ryodoji who had to dodge quickly, while still getting his rocket-cords iced over.

Toshiro angrily flashed in, spinning to dodge the counter-strike and slashed, cutting into the right shoulder of the enemy. The enemy screamed and nearly grabbed him, but another lightning strike hit his rocket cords, shocking him enough that he could not get away from the icy shinigami. The area around the blade froze, continued to freeze until his entire torso was covered with ice, eventually his entire body.

The last of the Ryodoji was vanquished, and Samui gave a nod to Toshiro, thanking him for the help. The captains and their subordinates watched in surprise as the Blanks suddenly dissipated completely, without warning, like someone had teleported them away all at once.

"Is it over?" asked Toshiro, curious.

Captain Soifon shook her head, joining the other captains watching the end of the battle. "No, it is not over until the threat with the Valley of Screams has been dealt with."

When Hitsugaya realized what they all meant by that, he frowned. "Are you still going to risk Naruto's life in all this? Why don't we send someone in right now, while we have time, and end this?"

"It is an impossibility," Captain Aizen said reluctantly. "I'm afraid that we cannot defy the orders of Central 46."

Toshiro grimaced, knowing all too well about Central 46's orders. He still remembered the time when he had been ordered to fight to the death for Hyourinmaru.

_Naruto... you're on your own._

* * *

The blonde's eyes opened, only to find Ganryu and Senna standing before the Urn. The shinigami's arms and legs were bound with the same liquid, and he tried to struggle but it was not going to work.

"Ah, I see that you are awake," explained the white-haired man. "Thank you for being a part of our plan, but you are still needed once more.  _Then_  you can die."

"Why did you hurt the survivors? Why did you kill one of them? I don't understand, I was doing what I was told, what you wanted me to do! None of them had to die!"

Ganryu smiled. "I'm afraid they did, Uzumaki. Or at least, _he_  did. I left the others alive, I promise. He was in the way of us succeeding for our plan."

"He couldn't have possibly been in the way!" Naruto exclained. "He was just a kid! Byakugan or no, he wasn't a threat! None of them were!" The blonde Uzumaki was angry, angry beyond belief.

Senna, who had been quiet until then, turned to him with the greatest puppy-dog eyes. "Oh, don't be mad at anyone, Naruto! We used you to succeed, and thanks to you, we got what we wanted! Thank you so much!"

"You got the Kyuubi," Naruto said, looking at the yellow urn in the center of a wide, spiral array of Kido runes and kanji. Blanks were surrounding them, watching from no particular formation. "Why in the world do you even need it though?"

"Ah, that is the best part," Ganryu explained, walking forward and pulling something from his bag. It was Naruto's zanpakutou, and the man unsheathed the short sword. He walked forward, touching the blade to Naruto's cheek but not cutting into him. Naruto tried to pull away from it but the Dark One made sure to keep it trained on him. "You're about to watch and find out! We don't want the worlds to end anymore than you do. We want to rule over them all as gods and take revenge against the Soul Society!"

"And somehow, the Kyuubi will help you do that?" asked Naruto. "Last I checked, the fox isn't exactly the most helpful guy in the world. This plan of yours is insane!"

Ganryu nicked him, cutting a long gash across his cheek with his own blade, collecting the blood on the tip. The crimson color was a stark contrast to the steely white, and Naruto could not have been more pissed as he winced in pain.

"Senna, we're ready."

The woman walked slowly into the center of the circle of seals and complex symbols, right in front of the Sealing Urn. She touched her palms to either side of it, but did not open the lid. Ganryu stepped to the center of a blank circle, held Naruto's zanpakutou horizontally, and watched the blood droplet land in the center of the circle.

Instantly, the entire array of symbols began to glow bright orange, shocking Naruto.

"All it needed was the spiritual blood of a former jinchuuriki," explained Ganryu, as the symbols continued to change, spreading and crawling up the side of the vase. As soon as it reached the lid, Senna lifted it and then stuck her hand inside the black-red liquid.

She screamed suddenly as the liquid form of energy inside the Sealing Urn began to crawl up her arm, joining into her skin like a tattoo and spreading up her arm, beneath her white kimono. The black red liquid began to glow the same orange color as the symbols, showing that the liquid started to pool around her stomach, twisting and churning into a familiar seal that was very similar to the seal used on him when he was alive. It was slightly different as well, however, and as Senna continued to scream, it continued to solidify into that spot until the Kyuubi was completely bound to her.

When it finally stopped glowing, Naruto gasped, not having noticed. The Blanks were now colored dark crimson and black, looking more feral and animalistic and seemingly even more powerful. They even had a black seal of their own, identical to the one on Senna's body, and Naruto could only reel in shock. Even the ground started to rumble with power, everything about the Valley of Screams was growing stronger.

Senna, as the Shinenju, must have been connected to the Blanks. Since the Blanks constituted the dimension, the dimension was stronger too. Naruto could only imagine what that kind of power could do to the Kyuubi, who was now connected to an entire plane of existence through Senna, his jinchuuriki.

"Damn it," the boy cursed, and Ganryu only smiled, knowing his plan was complete.

But when some other form of energy began to appear in the horizon, high above the clouds, Naruto's eyes widened with shock. An orange sparking wave of energy, cackling with yellow power almost like a flame, was headed toward them, growing significantly more powerful as it headed near them. Naruto could not believe what he was seeing: the shinigami had fired the Kido Cannon, not knowing if he were alive or dead. He knew in a few moments that he would be, and it would have been at the Thirteen Court Guard Squads' hands. He didn't know how he felt about that, but he supposed it wouldn't matter soon.

Ganryu grinned, his expression twisted at the very possibility of what that light could mean. "Senna, take care of that. Show them our fearsome power!"

She raised her arms and there was a stunning roar from the very ground beneath him, the sound of the Kyuubi reverberating throughout the dimension. Instantly, blue and red and black orbs began gathering, flowing from every particle all around them. Every rock, every boulder, every particle of air... It was escalating rapidly, growing larger and larger and full of more potent energy. The Blanks were creating large spheres of the energy, all of it coalescing into a giant black sphere so thick and dense that it didn't seem possible that Senna was controlling it. Naruto could not even feel his own body, his own pulse, in its very presence.

During this show, he could not help but notice that his bindings were getting looser, but he was far too busy watching the spectacle before him to act on it. The giant black orb of energy suddenly shot high into the sky, colliding with the energy from the Kido Cannon's blast.

The explosion was unreal, shaking the very foundation of everything he could see for miles. The stale air was hot, impossibly hot, as the flash of light threatened to vaporize the very air around them. The sound was deafening, a blast of thunder more powerful than anything he had ever heard before. An entire cliff was destroyed, some of the veined rock around them breaking up from the sheer shockwave. It was only after the fact of the matter that he realized that Senna had put up an energy barrier around them to protect them from the pure force of such an earth-shattering explosion.

Naruto was more shocked than anything, when the explosion had finally calmed. But when he realized that his hands were now even more loose, he only had one option.

* * *

"It's impossible," the captain of Squad Twelve began, looking through all the data. "Totally impossible. The Valley of Screams has not been destroyed, and the pure, potent energy flowing off of the dimension is causing this to speed up. They appear to have reflected the Kido Cannon blast, defending an entire dimension!"

Kurotsuchi was outraged, but more than that, he was intrigued. The energy signature was completely foreign to him, never seeing anything like it. At this magnitude, it did not seem possible that any form of this type of energy could exist, and it definitely could not have come from the Valley of Screams.

He needed to know what this was. His scientific curiosity had been piqued, and he needed to know now.

"Do not stop examining this situation!" he exclaimed. "Send word to the others, to everyone, now. The Valley of Screams has deflected the explosion. We have less than twenty minutes to end this before it gets out of hand."

He was curious. Very curious.

* * *

Naruto suddenly used Shunpo, grabbing his sword from Ganryu's hands and immediately spinning in the air and slicing toward the scarred man's neck. Ganryu threw up an arm and hit the back of Naruto's wrist, deflecting the blade.

Naruto jumped backwards several feet, feeling good to have his zanpakutou by his side again. Kusaritane seemed more worried than elated, but he didn't know why. She usually did not get this worked up in the middle of a fight.

"Senna, could you destroy him for me? Surely you could do so in an instant, with all the power of this plane at your fingertips!"

The girl did not look ready to attack him, not at all. She made no move to do so, but her personality seemed to be gone completely. The only thing left was the Kyuubi, as though all the memories that had once been her very existence were gone.

"Interesting," Ganryu began. "It seems that I'll have to fight you myself, since the rest of my clan has likely been exterminated by the enemy already." He gestured to the sky, referring to the Kido Cannon blast. "Oh well, the diversion seemed to be a success."

Naruto frowned, immediately rushing at him again with his fastest speed, clashing with the Ryodoji's sword and locking into place. "This isn't a game! This is the fate of all worlds you're playing with, Ganryu! Including this one!"

They clashed once more, sparks flying as they continued to try to take advantage of one another's weaknesses. Ganryu was not the most accomplished swordsman, but Naruto was still finding himself overwhelmed at times by the ancient Ryodoji's abilities, boosted by the Blanks around him.

They crossed blades once more, the two in a battle for dominance. "Now that I have the Kyuubi strengthening the Valley of Screams, my power will be absolute! If this world continues to expand and the worlds collide, the Kyuubi will ensure that the Valley of Screams will regenerate and be the only dimension left!"

They pushed off of one another, and Naruto rushed in again, slashing toward the man's midsection. Ganryu parried the strike and twisted into a counterstrike, which Naruto had to duck down to evade. As he did, the white-haired Ryodoji kneed Naruto in the face, the force of it throwing the shinigami backwards and breaking his nose.

"Shit," he muttered, shouting due to the pain and wishing he knew enough healing Kido to staunch the flow of blood, dripping down his face and into his lips. The taste of iron was his last sensation before he shouted,  **"Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!"**

Instantly, his shikai was activated and Naruto wasted no time, launching the chained dagger in the direction of Ganryu. The Ryodoji flashed out of sight, running along the dagger's chain right at Naruto. The blonde pulled back on his arm in reflex, the dagger changing direction and clipping the enemy's shoulder, making it spurt blood.

Naruto recalled the chain at just the right time, swinging an arm diagonally and blocking the counter attack with the end of his attached dagger. He then kicked outward, a flash of memory of a similar move from his past life coming to mind. The kick impacted the man's chest, sending him flying back much farther than he had anticipated.

Ganryu rolled his eyes as he stood up, brushing the blood off his lips. He quickly rushed forward, his reiatsu solidifying in a green aura around his body for a moment, before slashing at Naruto's belly.

The shinigami jumped backwards, catching the edge of the blade cutting through his shihakushou and into the muscle underneath. It was enough that it hurt to move his upper body with every movement, and he cursed at letting himself get hit like that.

He raised a hand.  **"Shakkaho!"** The red bolt of fiery energy was narrowly dodged, exploding against the ground several yards away. Ganryu pounced toward him, and Naruto suddenly found himself using the arm bracer to block every strike he could.

"It's going to take more than a low-level Kido to bring me down, you insolent fool!"

Another flurry of strikes and Naruto suddenly had an idea. He extended the chain with a thought, guiding it around the body while the Dark One was so close, and then tightened the slack suddenly, only managing to catch the free arm not holding a blade. The dagger spun through the air, quickly continuing to spin until an orange aura surrounded it like a spinning dart of energy. It angled down so that it was pointed at the back of the man's neck.

**"Rasentane!"**

The orange energy explosion was great enough that Naruto could feel the burst of heat at such a close proximity, but when the seedling-shaped column of hot air dissipated, the enemy was standing there, black and crimson Blanks falling to the ground.

"Shit, how did I miss that?" Naruto asked as Ganryu's Blank armor continued to fall off, having taken the brunt of the attack. The chain fell to the ground as the white-haired man managed to slip out, and Naruto quickly retracted it.

"That was clever, but I'm far more clever than you realize!" shouted the Ryodoji, blasting forward in his direction, his sword poised to strike once more. Naruto felt more spiritual energy signatures approaching from behind, but without warning, Naruto leaped into the air and dodged the strike from the two feral Blanks, the Ryodoji jumping after him.

Naruto held up his free left arm and began to spin it around in circles.  **"Tenran!"**  A blast of spiraling air hit the Dark One, but it did nothing. The man simply cut right through the wind, instantly cutting into Naruto's undefended side and then slamming him down with a hammer kick.

The blonde collided with the ground loudly, angrily, bruising every one of his ribs upon impact. He forced himself to stand, blood dripping into his mouth from his nose, blood oozing down his abdomen from the cut on his torso. He had to keep fighting, this was not over until it was over.

He jumped up and quickly began to spin the chain around himself, orange light on the dagger spinning rapidly as well. He quickly recalled the correct chant and smiled.  **"Rasenkaikon!"**

The dagger suddenly struck downward, spiraling and creating the image of an orange energy tentacle heading for the most powerful source of spirit energy nearby. It was fast enough that when it hit Ganryu in the shoulder, it took him almost completely by surprise. The orange energy nearly cut right through him, but when Ganryu realized it enough to recover, he quickly pulled himself backwards and the chain instead struck the ground, energy spreading from the impact sight and then exploding upward, a leaf made of orange energy appearing for an instant.

"Not bad," Ganryu muttered, before suddenly raising a hand and gathering several Kyuubi-fied Blanks into his body, his spiritual aura increasing exponentially. Naruto realized that this was a very, very bad thing, the extra power more than enough to overwhelm him in seconds if he weren't careful. "But not good enough!"

Naruto ran to the right, away from Ganryu as best as he could and heading back toward Senna's general direction. He was not sure why he was heading toward the newly-minted jinchuuriki, but if Ganryu was getting stronger due to the Blanks, then he should cut off the source of the Blanks.

He did not go right for the seemingly emotionless girl, who did not react at all to their fight, only watching. He was hoping to throw Ganryu off somehow and then go for her, ending her quickly while his attention was drawn elsewhere.

A now boosted Dark One rushed toward him, his aura solidifying and seemingly staying with him permanently. The sword headed right for him, but Naruto shook his head, shouting,  **"Rasentane!"**

The spinning chained dagger collided with the enemy, exploding with orange light and sending him flying backwards, immediately crashing to the ground far away from him.

Naruto realized it was his chance and immediately flash-stepped forward, only taking one super-speedy step before arriving in front of her. He immediately slammed the bladed dagger deep into her stomach, and she did not even protest. Senna whimpered lightly, still impaled on his blade, and a single drop of blood from Naruto's nose hit the letters of the Kido ritual seal.

Naruto tried to pull the dagger out of her and let her fall gently to the ground, but the thing was stuck. He realized why very quickly when he saw the black and red liquid crawling up his arm, eventually touching skin and immediately burning with pain.

He dropped to his knees as the Kyuubi integrated into his body, joining with him once more in a much unwanted reunion. He had had some of his memories back for all of a few hours and he already knew he didn't want to deal with the fox. But here he was, the fox becoming part of him again.

It swirled onto his stomach, and he heard Ganryu scream obscenities and rush at him. Naruto, empowered by the Kyuubi for the slightest instant, immediately exploded with rage and strength and speed, leaping toward the white-haired enemy and slashing into the man's abdomen with his outstretched dagger.

Naruto fell to his knees a second later, his body overwhelmed with what was happening, with the idea of the Kyuubi back inside his body. He turned slightly, only to see that Ganryu was now almost completely bifurcated, his body limp and lying in the circle of the seal he had probably worked so hard to find. Senna was next to it, her own body lying emotionless at the base of the Sealing Urn. He had barely understood what happened, and it was over.

**Long time, no see, kit.**

He was too exhausted to answer him, his body too wracked with pain to stay conscious.

* * *

_Naruto looked at the deep forest clearing with no end in sight, so wooded that he could only see blends and splotches of green and brown color, like an old oil landscape painting._

_A tall, regal woman with dark red hair, bright blue eyes, and a white kimono that seemed to extend into the base of the ground like a root, as if she were a plant, appeared before him, shining with slight orange light. The kanji for Uzumaki were written on her robe in orange and black lines, and the only other splotches of color were on her sleeves and on the end of the kimono._

_"My son," the woman began, surprising even Naruto. "Our son, I should say." The woman opened her right hand and revealed something that he had never managed to see before. A tiny statue of a toad, unmoving but still very powerful imagery._

_"Wait, why did you say 'son'?"_

_"Because, Naruto, your father and I became the essence of your zanpakutou upon your death," she explained. "My chakra was sealed alongside the Kyuubi, woven into the seal so that I may one day help you control its power. Minato did the same, etching the last of his chakra in his dying breath to be sure that you would be able to receive his guidance someday."_

_Naruto sat there, trying to think about what that all meant. He had to wipe away a tear from his face just thinking about it, thinking that his mother and father, in their own way, had been within him all this time._

_"This is no time for tears, Naruto."_

_"Is the battle not over yet? Did Ganryu survive?"_

_She shook her head, her red hair glinting in the light of the clearing, sunlight drifting through the leaves of the canopy. "No, Naruto. The current fight is over, but as you know, there will be more to come in the future." She glanced up at the sky. "Naruto, the Kyuubi was not meant to come back to you, especially not in this way. What do you know about chakra and its composition?"_

_He curiously tried to think of what he knew or remembered. "Well, chakra was made of two parts. Yin, a spiritual part, and yang, a physical part."_

_"During the fight against the Kyuubi all those years ago, the night we sealed him within you, Minato sealed away the yin chakra of the Kyuubi using the Reaper Death Seal. He then sealed the yang chakra within you, a purely physical form of the Kyuubi."_

_Naruto thought for a moment. "So the Kyuubi that joined back with me is the yang form of him then, right?"_

_She nodded. "Yes. Do you see how this might be bad for you?"_

_"If I'm not made of physical matter, then does this mean that the yang chakra is bad for me?"_

_"Essentially, the yang chakra could have long-term effects, even if you never used it, because it is sealed within you. I can't imagine what kind of havoc it could wreak on your soul."_

_Naruto looked around his inner world, watching the trees for a moment before turning back to her, the woman he knew to be his mother and his zanpakutou spirit._

_"I guess it's impossible to remove without killing me, isn't it? Even if I'm already dead."_

_"This is not exactly an exact science," explained Kusaritane. "I do not believe anything has happened in such a way before now. But it seems, by all accounts, that if we were to try to extract it, it could be too dangerous."_

_He frowned, considering his options before he realized that he didn't exactly have any. "So where is he anyway? I kind of figured that he would be here, in my inner world, kind of like last time."_

_**"You rang? So nice to see you again, Kushina. I might be less sarcastic towards you if you had actually tried to use me in your lifetime. At least kit here tried."** _

_Naruto turned around suddenly, seeing the one great eye amongst the leaves. If he looked closer, it looked like he was being held down by large, thick roots of ancient trees, each of his tails held by a different one and his head bound angrily and surrounded by leaves and branches._

_"Nice to you again too, Kurama," Kusaritane answered back, as equally sarcastic as Kurama had been._

_"Wait, your name is Kurama? And your name was Kushina?"_

_"My name is Kusaritane in this form," she explained._

_**"Oh, come on! I know you're like a composite of Minato and Kushina, but you're like 99% Kushina. About the only thing you have of Minato in appearance are his eyes. And I guess the kimono looks like that dreaded Hokage cloak, the bastard."** _

_The red-headed zanpakutou did not seem amused. "The point of me calling you here, Naruto, is to introduce myself to you, now that you have started to regain your memories. And I wanted to warn you that if you go down the path of using the Kyuubi, it could be life-threateningly dangerous for you."_

_**"Yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. I haven't been this cooped up since Ole' Hashi fought me with the entire Forest of Death. I'm sure you'll be fine, kit."** _

_Naruto was utterly confused, but one thing did seem clear. "You seem different, Kyuubi. Less angry. What's the deal?"_

_**"Eh,** _ **you** _**spend a long time stuck in a vase and see if you don't come back a changed man."** _

_"Uh.. no thanks."_

_**"At the moment, I'm angry, but not furious. I would be furious if you were as emotionless as that girl was. But I'm just angry with you."** _

* * *

Naruto awoke gently and immediately moved his rib in the wrong possible way, getting a searing jolt of pain that made him infinitely aware of the fact that he was sitting in a hospital gurney, deep within the barracks of Squad Four.

"Sorry, that was me," said a voice, looking over to see a pink-haired shinigami holding her hands over his chest, imbuing healing Kido to his bruised ribs. "At least you're awake. How do you feel?"

His head immediately began to hurt as he realized again that Sakura had been someone from his past, as had Shikamaru, Temari, and Tenten. Even Samui seemed oddly familiar, but he... the Chunin Exams, maybe?

"Not good," he muttered, tempted to move his arms to test how bad his head felt but not wanting to risk it if his arms were fractured/broken/cut/etc. "Did... did it all end well?"

Sakura shook her head. "The Valley of Screams started to recede, we presume, the moment you killed the Shinenju."

"Her name was Senna," he muttered, feeling terrible for what had happened.

"Oh. Okay, Senna. Anyway, on our side, a lot of people were lost at the battle and a lot of others were wounded. It was not a good day for us, that's for sure." She did something with her Kido that immediately made one of his ribs pop back into place with the worst grinding pain you can imagine. "Over the past five days, the Valley of Screams is now all but nonexistent."

"Five days? Have I been out that long?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, I'm afraid so. Everyone has been worried sick about you, but not for a lot of the time. Most of the time, they've spent a few nights here themselves trying to get better on their own. The battle was very rough, but it turned around when the captains arrived."

Naruto looked at her face, her green eyes and pink hair, and the resemblance was too odd not to say something. It was almost positively her.

"So, Sakura, I have an interesting story to tell, but I think it will have to wait. Is Momo hurt?"

Sakura shook her head, grinning at his question. "No. She and the rest of Squad Five were on messenger duty. She's been sitting outside waiting for you to get up on every off hour she can manage. Let me go get her, and you guys can talk for a few minutes. I'll be back in five, because I have to finish resetting you ribs."

The moment Sakura left the room, Momo rushed into the room and immediately held onto him for dear life, no matter how much it hurt him. "Oh, I was so worried about you, Naruto! How are you feeling?"

"Well, honestly, I was a bit better before you hugged me," he said, laughing.

She blushed. "Sorry about that. I didn't think, I've just been worried sick. How do you really feel?"

"I feel fine, for the most part," he explained.

"Well good, because you have to tell me what happened! No one will explain anything to me."

Naruto nodded. "I will, I promise, but it will have to be in front of everyone. At the captains' and lieutenants' meeting about my report. I don't want to explain it all twice, but I'll give you the little details after that."

"Wait? Lieutenant? You're going to take the position?!"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, I think so. I think it's what Kaien would want anyway, for someone to fill his shoes."

He didn't want to tell her the real reason, but maybe he would one day.

* * *

Naruto had to admit, the badge did feel nice around his left arm. He was standing behind his captain, listening to the proceedings. They were discussing several other items of topic concerning the battle and the clean up and the medical side to it, but when it finally became his turn to talk, he nodded and stepped forward, turning to face the head captain in as formal a way as he could.

He detailed the kidnapping and the moment he woke up, but did not mention the fact that he had heard of an informant. He did not want to tip the person off, in the rare instant the Ganryu's informant was in the room. It was the reason why he didn't want to tell Momo about why he wanted the lieutenant's position; he could really do some investigative work here.

"What was really strange was when Senna touched my face, she somehow unlocked memories of my past life. I remember the person that I was, or at least parts of it. I know where I lived, the job I had, some of the people I knew. In fact, some of the people I know found their way here, to the Soul Society, in my graduating class of the Academy."

"Fascinating," Captain Kurotsuchi said, more to himself than anyone else.

The others seemed less shocked about the news than he had expected, but he continued the story. He explained they had taken him to what were called the "Elemental Nations," a chain of islands pretty far from Japan and nearly out of the Soul Societies direct jurisdiction. They seemed really surprised to hear that that was where he had lived, and that he had met people that he knew back then.

He explained that Ganryu had wanted the Kyuubi, a powerful biju that were used as political tools and weapons of mass destruction back in his day. He detailed the way that he had helped Ganryu get the Sealing Urn, the death of the boy from the survivors, and the fact that he was captured again and brought back to the Valley of Screams.

"Ah, the shinobi," Kenpachi said. "They're practically extinct now, but I hear from the history books they were great fighters."

He went on to detail the ritual they used to turn Senna into a jinchuuriki, which in turn affected the dimension in such a way that the entire dimension became a container for the Kyuubi. He had to detail the nature of the Kyuubi and the way that he and Ganryu had fought. He had to explain that he had killed Senna the moment he could.

**You're not going to tell them about me, are ya?**

Naruto didn't tell them about Kurama binding to him, and instead explained that the Kyuubi had died with Senna but could resurrect over time. He was not sure why he was lying about it, but he did not feel good about explaining that to them. It seemed like it was inherently his business, and while he figured that it would eventually bite him in the ass, he decided against telling anyone about it.

"And that's pretty much it," Naruto explained. "I woke up in the hospital a few days ago, if that counts toward the end of the story." Hinamori gave him a smile from her position in the line.

"Thank you, Lieutenant Uzumaki," the Head Captain said in his deep voice. "Does anyone have any other business?"

"Actually, I have one more thing," Naruto said, inciting a look from several people, including Toshiro. "I... I was wondering why you chose to use the Kido Cannon while I was still in the dimension."

No one knew how to answer that question immediately, but it was a surprise to him when Captain Ukitake cleared his throat. "Not one of us wanted to harm you intentionally, Uzumaki. This was the order of Central 46, and at the time, it was the best option for us to destroy the dimension before it became a huge problem."

Naruto nodded, knowing that was probably the case but he could not help but feel bitter about it. "Okay. That is all."

The meeting was adjourned, and Naruto left when it was time. He had a date with a certain fellow Lieutenant, and he did not want to be late. Anything to make him feel better at the moment, and he could not think of anything better than spending the afternoon and evening with Momo Hinamori. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Samui's Zanpakutou, Inabikari, loosely translates to "Flash of Lightning."


	11. Passive Action

The atmosphere of the small restaurant was warm and cozy, the perfect feeling for the night's events. It was an up-and-coming joint in district five of West Rukongai, somewhat high-class but still quaint. The blonde lieutenant was trying not to feel nervous, knowing that the special date was important for both of them.

He smiled at the lieutenant across from him, her face petite and grinning back at him. "How's the food?"

"It's amazing," Momo replied, taking another bite of her salad for good measure. Her miso soup was almost completely gone, and he took that as a good sign. "How have we not come here before now?"

He rubbed the back of his neck. "Um, it was a suggestion from a friend. He thought it would be a romantic idea for our anniversary." He silently hoped that she would not press the issue.

No such luck. "Which friend? Shikamaru? Sentaro?"

"It was actually Captain Aizen," he blurted out, hoping that she would not make a huge deal out of it. Naruto was not sure that he liked the guy, but it was a cordial suggestion. This place was definitely something that Momo would appreciate; she liked small, intimate settings. But Uzumaki did not like it simply because he did not want to think that Aizen was butting in.

"Really? I'll have to thank him for the idea," she said amiably, and Naruto relaxed instantly. "He has good tastes, Naruto. You shouldn't get so worked up over him."

"Yeah, I know. But he's important to you, and sometimes I feel like that's all you talk about," he said without thinking. They had argued about this before, and he immediately regretted bringing it up again in that context. "I'm sorr-"

"No, it's okay. I'm not angry with you, I just don't see why you think you have to compete at all." She gripped his hand across the table tighter. "You're important to me, Naruto. The most important man in my life, bar none. Sosu- no, Captain Aizen, is a good friend, but he's my superior first, friend second."

Naruto nodded, but he still couldn't wipe the feeling from his mind. He did not like the first-name basis at all. The fox chimed in, but Naruto didn't give the Kyuubi the time of day. "I know, Momo. But when he suggested this place at the meeting the other day, it was too good of an idea to pass up. I had a couple of other places in mind, but I feel like he was the one who influenced me to pick this, and I don't like it. I don't want him to feel like this stamp over our business."

The restaurant suddenly became quiet, Momo's statement stopped the moment that they noticed. Naruto turned around toward the door and nearly rolled his eyes as the bespectacled captain of Squad Five strolled in like he owned the place. His presence was enough that even the other customers from Rukongai knew of his exploits and that he was a very respected shinigami.

Naruto put on a good face, knowing that this could not have just been a coincidence but not wanting to show any resentment. Captain Aizen was a kind man, not ever giving Naruto a reason to mistrust him, but the respect that Momo had for him sometimes bordered on a crush or even love. Naruto did not like it one bit.

_Perhaps you are simply being insecure,_  his zanpakutou suggested in the back of his mind.  _He's such a nice man, a good friend to you and to her. Someone you can trust, and that's all it should be. He's not malicious._

**You're right to dislike him. He's way too goody-goody. There's reason to believe he may love Momo himself, even if he's old as dirt.**

_Don't listen to him, Naruto,_ Kusaritane supplied.  _He is her superior, a co-worker. You should trust Momo on this._

Naruto frowned inwardly and told them both to be quiet.

"Captain Aizen!" Hinamori said, getting up to greet him with a bow. "Is there squad business to take care of?" Naruto begrudgingly stood and bowed as well, not wanting to show the man disrespect.

"Not tonight, Momo, I promise." The captain kindly bowed back to her and stood over their table. "How are you two doing this evening?"

"Good," Naruto said. "The food here is excellent. Thank you for telling me about it."

"Anytime, Lieutenant Uzumaki," he said with a friendly half-smile. "I've got to go and pick up my order."

The man walked off to the counter, and Naruto looked at her. "Why would he do that? I swear, he's just trying to mess with my head. He's politely screwing with me."

She laughed. "You're being paranoid. He probably just wanted to see how we were doing, and he ordered some food while he was at it. It's not that big of a deal. Can we talk about something else now?"

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, sorry. What did you think about Abarai from Squad Eleven becoming a lieutenant for Squad Six?"

Momo was happy for the change of topic, Naruto could tell. "I think it would be a good fit for him. Tenten speaks highly of him, and Yachiru keeps saying that he's become very good under Madarame's wing."

Naruto remembered the redhead from his very first zanjutsu lesson, and that had been so long ago. He was likely to have become leaps and bounds stronger since then, just like Naruto himself had, although with a different focus of battle skills.

"I'm sure Squad Eleven wouldn't miss the muscle," Naruto said with a chuckle. "They have quite a bit to spare." Immediately, his mind flashed to something that seemed off-putting to him during the meeting, and he had to bring it up. "Momo, something that Lieutenant Kurotsuchi said seemed a little suspicious today. She acted lik-"

"Are you really going on about this again, Naruto?" she asked, cutting him off. "The spy who told the Dark Ones about our movements is going to be more alert than that. And Nemu is creepy, but I can't see it being her."

He took a deep breath, sighing. "We can't take any chances, Momo. It could be anyone."

"Which is all the more reason why you should tell someone. Tell Lieutenant Sasakibe or even Head-Captain Yamamoto himself." She brought that option up a lot, but Naruto continued to shoot it down. "C'mon, you don't really think it could be either of them, do you?"

"No, but I can't risk tipping the real informant off. If there's anything my past-life taught me, it's that this had to be pulled off by someone high-profile, and getting a private audience with the Head Captain without letting anyone else know is difficult."

She nodded, knowing that was probably true. "Why not try again? It was a fluke that last time that made you too afraid to try. Maybe it's time?"

Naruto remembered the time she was discussing, and the moment that he had tried to request an audience, Captain Kurotsuchi had appeared inside the room and Naruto had had to make up an excuse. The Head Captain had not been the wiser, but it was still difficult to risk the information spreading around to the wrong person.

"I just have to be careful. It's too high-risk. I have always been too direct, too overconfident, too forward. With something like this, it's best to sit back and wait for a slip-up."

She frowned, crossing her arms. "But you're not waiting for a slip-up. We practically have this conversation after every meeting. You're looking to find something every time you speak with someone, and it's not healthy. Maybe it's time to put away the corkboard and actually wait to find something. Let it come to you."

She had a point, to a certain extent. It nearly obsessed his every thought, and he knew it was not a way to live. He nodded to pacify her, but his thoughts were still troubled. He just wasn't sure of anyone around him, too afraid to tell anyone but her. Even Toshiro did not know.

"Back to Renji, Naruto. Do you think it's a good idea to promote him though? The position has been open for a while, after a little bit of shifting around among the squads years back," wondered Momo. "Renji's a good friend of mine, but back when we were in the same squad, I'm not sure if he had a great work ethic back then. Maybe that's changed though."

Naruto wondered, letting his mind drift back to the present. "Yeah, I don't see why it would be a  _bad_  idea. I don't know of anyone else who would be a good candidate. Rukia's the only person who comes to mind, but I don't think her brother would want that at all, power level or no. He won't even let her become an officer in Squad Thirteen."

"Yeah, Rukia is an interesting case."

"Rukia? The Kuchiki girl?" asked a voice, Aizen appearing over the blonde's shoulder holding a box of carryout. He had a genuinely interested look on his face. "Sorry for the eavesdropping, but I could not help but overhear."

"It's fine," Momo said first before Naruto could say something derogatory. "We were talking about the potential candidates for Squad Six's open position. At the lieutenants' meeting today, we discussed it and are probably going to submit our votes for Renji Abarai. Ultimately, it's up to Captain Kuchiki himself who he wants to work with, but we thought it would be a good idea to revie-"

Aizen nodded. "I see. Renji, huh? I think he would make an interesting candidate. We probably should fill that gap soon. Someone needs to even out Captain Kuchiki." They laughed.

"The other name that kept coming up was his sister Rukia," explained Naruto. "She's easily lieutenant-level, works hard, and has a relationship to Byakuya so she could possibly work with him."

"But then again, we don't think  _he_  could work with  _her_  very well," added Hinamori. "He's not exactly been keen on her participating in any potentially dangerous situations. She could handle the paperwork side, but what if a crisis occurred and she was needed on the battlefield?"

The captain looked toward the window thoughtfully. "You bring up interesting points. I wonder as well if she could work with her brother. There's also the pressure from the Kuchiki nobles surrounding her. Hmmm. I think I'll talk to Byakuya myself and see what I can do on that front. I believe he would want her to represent the Kuchiki clan as a high-ranking officer, but I do not know what would be the best option here truthfully." He paused, looking down. "I had better leave you two alone, I'm probably overstaying my welcome if I was ever welcome at all. I wish both of you a happy anniversary."

"Thank you, Sosuke," Momo said, grinning and bringing a slight frown to Naruto's features. He really did not like Momo using his first name.

"Thank you, sir. Have a good night yourself."

The captain left the restaurant soon after that, leaving the two of them a little too silent.

"Do you remember our first date?" asked Momo, a smile stretching across her face as she remembered it herself, the expression reaching her eyes and twinkling in the lamplight.

Naruto thought back to it. "Yeah. Of course I do. You were so beautiful, and I was so nervous and awkward. I had never done anything like it before, and I did not know what to expect really. We had been friends for so long that it eventually went away though and I was able to have a good time."

She nodded. "Yeah, I remember you did seem really nervous. I was too, just so you know, but I think you might have been a bit more than I was. You ended up spilling your soup all over your front and then laughing hysterically."

They jovially laughed again, remembering the merriment. "I remember saying something like, 'I used to eat fourteen bowls of ramen back in the World of the Living and never have an incident. But as soon as a pretty girl is involved, my whole brain melts.'"

They talked, laughed, and genuinely enjoyed each other's company for several more minutes before Naruto finally realized it was time to leave. He was going to take her on a special route through the Rukongai, back through his original home district Hokutan. He had already spent a lot of time decorating the cabin just for the occasion, and he knew she would absolutely love it. It was better than the barracks for the moment, and they would have time alone.

* * *

Later that night, he stood up from the bed, careful not to wake the woman sleeping beside him. He walked out of the small hut, watching the moonlit sky from the top of the small mountain, Hokutan stretched before him, twinkling lightly but nearly devoid of any signs of life at this hour.

The breeze was cold, but he had something that he had to do. He walked around the back of the hut, ensuring that no one was watching, and quietly dispelled the barrier kido that he had set up to hide the secondary building he had erected, an even smaller shed with only one room.

Kido runes sealed the entire shed from any form of notice. He quietly opened the door and slipped inside, performing another quick incantation to reseal it. He only had a few minutes in case she woke up in the night, noticing his absence. She knew about the shed and the necessary spells to get inside, but he didn't want to worry her. Not on this night.

The tiny shed was barely larger than a closet, but nearly every inch of it was covered with potential leads and information that could have been related to the Valley of Screams. Past people involved, any information about what a Shinenju even is, recordings of suspicious conversations he had had. It was all tied together in strange ways, but he could not find the link that lead to whom it could be.

He did not have enough intel to eliminate anyone from the list, anyone who was an officer at the time. Only he, Momo, and Toshiro were unrelated to the incident and any other captain or lieutenant was suspect. The potential for a Third Seat to be involved was slim to none. He wanted to figure this out, wanted to learn who it was and bring them to justice. Too many lives were lost that day, and without an inside man, Ganryu would not have known about the Kido Cannon and staged an attack on the Seireitei fast enough.

He ignited a small Shakkaho, barely the size of a candlewick, and immediately started to gather any paper and burn it all up. He was doing it impulsively, he knew. But after so many years without any potential movement, he wanted to get it out of his mind and focus on his job and his beautiful girlfriend.

Ashes fell to the ground, charred remains of missions reports he had saved, copies of financial documents. All of it falling to the ground, burnt up and removed from the world. The tiny flame on the end of his finger did not waver, continually burning through slips of paper and scrolls that once contained data he thought important.

The actual corkboard that he started with several years ago was the only thing left, and he smiled before setting ablaze as well.

He touched the wall of the shed, watching it begin to catch on fire and slowly spread. He undid the seal, stepping away and controlling the oncoming blaze with another kido, concealing it so that no one would be alarmed by the heat and the smoke and the bright light on the mountaintop.

He watched the space where it once stood, creating another barrier around it just in case. He wasn't giving up on finding the informant, but he was starting over with a new, less active and more passive frame of mind. Perhaps new evidence would come his way with that new method of thinking.

Something caught his eye as he turned away, and Naruto frowned. A group of small boulders sat as a testament for Senna, and Naruto instantly filled with regret. He had created that grave marker for her, to honor her even if she was not actually buried there, and it saddened him immensely. She had not meant him harm, but had been influenced and molded by Ganryu and the other Dark Ones for her nefarious purposes.

She had loved him, or at least the memory of what he once was, and it made him feel more and more guilty to even consider what had happened. What he had done to her for the greater good.

_It's all right, Naruto._   _You did what you had to do._  Kusaritane said inside his mind, but he was not sure that was the case at all. Could he have saved her in the end, or was that truly the only option?

* * *

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.

It never seemed to cease, but he could not help it. Konso reports, mission briefings, documents about equipment shipments, damage reports, Hollow descriptions for the Great Spiritual Library, official updates from each of the stationed shinigami... et cetera. Naruto had been handling the slack from the captain today, as he was not feeling very well.

He stamped his seal of approval before turning over a mission assignment, reading the name on the top and squinting at it. "Rukia Kuchiki?" he whispered aloud, thinking that this was far, far too coincidental. It was among the World of the Living stack, which surprised him more than anything.

He opened the file quickly, the requested assignment for Karakura Town. A large city like that with an abnormally high density of spiritual activity... was that really a suitable situation for Rukia's first solo mission in years, if not longer? She was to stay for a specific amount of time, a relatively short-term assignment compared to other cities of similar sizes across Japan. Did she have enough experience to handle that on her own, strength or not?

Naruto thought back to the other night, his mind focusing in on Aizen. The captain must have talked with her brother and convinced the noble that Rukia was prepared for a mission like this. The lieutenant had never thought that the captain of Squad Six would agree so quickly, but maybe times were changing in their relationship? Maybe Rukia had shown Kuchiki something; she and Naruto did not talk very often on a personal level, so maybe there was something in her life he had missed. Either way, Captain Aizen seemed to have worked his magic and Rukia was to leave that afternoon for one of her first solo missions ever.

**That was a little too easy for him to do, don't you think?**

_"Nah, Aizen's a charming guy, as much as it pains me to admit that sometimes,"_  the blonde answered back within his mind, the Kyuubi stirring at the notion.

**Yeah, yeah, but Byakuya's a stubborn prick. I don't think even** _**Aizen** _ **is that good.**

Naruto pushed the bickering to the back of his mind, realizing that it was probably a good idea to tell Rukia of the assignment. He would find Ukitake later to follow-up, after the lieutenants' meeting to welcome Abarai of Squad Six.

He spotted Kiyone and Sentaro, both the Third Seats working feverishly at their desks across from one another, where they could see each other constantly and know the competition. Naruto thought it was a little bit ridiculous that they were so dead-set on conquering each other in something as simple as deskwork, but as long as they continued to handle a load of the paperwork, he was not going judge.

"Hey, you two, have you seen Kuchiki?"

Sentaro poked his head up from the file he was analyzing, shooting a quick darting glance at Kiyone on the other side of the room. "I think she was in the garden earlier, but she may have left by now. It's been a couple of hours since I last saw her."

He looked toward the blonde girl across from him, but she shrugged like she didn't know, and Naruto could have sworn that Sentaro looked so proud just for knowing something she didn't.

"I swear, one of these days, you two need to figure out a way to work out the tension between you," he said suggestively, walking out of the office before he could hear them argue anymore.

The garden was a very large courtyard adorned with a traditional style. Koi fish swam around in circles in the pond, with lily pads and small trees twisted in a very decorative way. The women, or whomever designed the squad's barracks long ago did a great job giving it a nice, peaceful feel. He enjoyed the feeling of nature, and it reminded him of his inner world.

The lieutenant noticed the petite black-haired shinigami sitting calmly under at the base of a tree, a thoughtful expression stretching across her face. He wondered what she was thinking about.

"Um, Kuchiki," he started, clearing his throat as he approached. He held out the slip of paper, surprising her a bit. "An assignment for you."

She read over it, her eyes widening in shock. "A month? In Karakura Town? By myself?"

He nodded. "Yes. You're supposed to leave this afternoon. Do whatever you need to prepare for it and make sure you let Kiyone know before you leave." He turned away, knowing that she did not exactly appreciate his presence, especially out of the blue interrupting her free time.

"Wait!" she called out, standing and brushing the dust off of her shihakusho frantically. "Are you sure I'm ready? I mean, does my brother know?"

Naruto wondered how he should respond. Should he explain that this mission was given the go ahead by Byakuya, or let her believe that she was going at it by herself? It might be a pride thing to her.

"No, he does not, but the mission should not be something that you can't handle. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"

Her face brightened at his statement, but she seemed unsure of him. He let her be after an awkward moment of silence, deciding that she would know soon enough whether she was ready.

He returned to the office to get ready for the lieutenant's meeting to appoint Renji Abarai to Squad Six. He wondered if Aizen had convinced Byakuya to accept Renji as well.

* * *

With the formal meeting among the captains and lieutenants out of the way, the lieutenants stayed behind for their own meeting inside the Squad One barracks. Naruto always felt a little bit apprehensive in the chamber, especially with the captains around. He felt that way even more so without them around because he was the sole representative of an entire squad. He did not want to look his worst.

His eyes drifted around the room, watching as the others talked amongst those next to them. Most of the attention in the room was on Renji, nearly the entire point of the meeting was devoted to him in the first place. The tattooed redhead was nervous, his fingers fidgeting slightly as Kira, Momo, and Hisagi tried to catch him up to speed.

"How are you feeling about all of this?" Naruto asked as he walked over, thankful that he had a few minutes before he had to return to his position in line. He slipped his arm around Momo's waist, smiling.

Renji smiled uneasily. "Well... I'm fine, I guess. Seems a bit strange after all this time to be wearing a badge around my arm."

"Oh, you shouldn't worry so much," Izuru said with a grin, running a hand through his blonde hair absently. "It's not such a hard job when you really think about it and break it down."

"Just be glad that your captain is a workaholic," suggested Nanao, heading over to congratulate him. "I'm basically handling both the Captain and the Third Seat's work load."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, Shikamaru is a problem. Captain Kuchiki takes pride in his work, and as long as you do as well, I'm sure you'll be fine." He leaned over the redhead's ear. "Just don't let that pride go to your head like he did."

Renji chuckled, grateful for all the reassuring words. "Thank you very much, you guys. I'm sure I'll get used to it."

Sasakibe cleared his throat loudly at the head of the U-shaped line of thirteen lieutenants, and everyone quickly returned to their positions. Renji was visibly nervous, but after a moment seemed to calm down a bit more.

"Let's call this meeting to order." They went over several normal orders of business, and Naruto could not have been more bored. Meetings like this were all talk and no real action. Action in the sense that usually nothing major was discussed; it was all just thirteen people catching up on the day-to-day squad business. Very rarely does a position change, and it becomes very tedious and boring without those events to talk about.

One thing that came up consistently was Central 46, the central governing body of all of the Seireitei. The nobles supposedly had a direct link to the Soul King, but Naruto knew that was bogus. It was all political semantics to maintain their hold over the Soul Society, and through the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, they had a military arm to enact their will.

Normally, that would not be difficult to deal with. The problem was that Central 46 usually meddled in situations that should not have even needed their ruling. They cluttered up the system instead of organizing it, and Naruto wondered what it would take to try to change that system.

He did not dare speak out though. Too much would be at stake if he put himself on the line for that. Central 46 was a body that did not mind eliminating those who challenged the status quo, even if by mistake. He remembered Toshiro's friend Sojiro Kusaka, who had manifested the same zanpakutou as the silver-haired captain-to-be. It made him angry just thinking about it.

The new lieutenant of Squad Six was welcomed formally with open arms, and the thirteen of them celebrated with a toast of sake and a small cake, and then adjourned. Naruto and Momo had to drag Matsumoto away from the bottle, while Omaeda plowed into the leftovers of the cake as gracefully as the nobility could.

* * *

The blonde touched down on the ground, having air-ran across the bay to another sliver of the mainland. He was sweating, the sun having beaten down on him for almost an hour without many clouds to block the light, and the air was incredibly humid.

He finally landed, looking at the vast expanse of wooded forests and a large mountain literally dotted with waterfalls, trees that were larger than normal, and a mist that covered the area and nearly obscured it from sight.

He had been here many times over the past several years, but he still managed to enjoy the natural beauty of the place each time he found it. He wandered down the path, heading toward the main area at the base of the mountain.

It did not take long for Naruto to realize he was being followed, and opening his senses did not reveal the culprit. That must mean that whatever was following him was alive, so he did not even register it as a threat.

He turned just in time, side-stepping out of the way of a ten-foot-tall orange and blue creature trying to stomp on him.

**"Hey! It's Naruto!"** the huge toad said, smiling as Naruto looked up at the large toad.

"Gamakichi! What's happening?"

"Nothing much, I promise," the toad began. "What brings you here to the mountain? More training?"

Naruto shook his head. "No, not quite." He raised up his shirt and channeled his energy, the ink-black seal appearing on his skin. The seal had been ebbing recently, a cyclical decline that happened every few years. Much faster than if he were alive. "I was hoping you guys could tighten this for me."

Gamakichi nodded, his eyes focused on Naruto even though the toad could not see him directly. The toads had explained it once that they were so attuned with natural energy that they could see on the spiritual plane to a certain degree. "Yeah, follow me back to the Chief."

Naruto did as Gamakichi wished, enjoying the sights as he did. He wished that he could stay for a bit and try to train, but he only had so much time available to do what he needed, without the Soul Society finding out all the details.

When he entered the large chamber filled with strange drawings and symbols and odd devices that made no sense no matter who long he looked at them, he found the giant toad Gamabunta, as young as ever, watching him with great interest from a large chair that did not even look like it was made for a toad. "Uzumaki."

Naruto bowed to him. "Chief Toad, it's nice to see you again. I was hoping that you could help me with the seal."

**Damn it, kit, why don't you just let me be?** The Kyuubi roared within his mind, and Naruto tried to ignore it.

The toad nodded, sure that they could handle it all right.  **"Yes, I suppose so. It's the least I could do after that hollow attack the last time you were here."**

Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, wishing that that incident had never happened. "Yeah, sorry about that. The mist only protects you from spiritual radar so well, huh?"

The toad nodded.  **"We're not worried about it. As long as your visits here are rare and short, we don't mind you coming. Some of the younger toads really enjoy your company, strangely enough."**

The mist around the island was one of the reasons why they were able to stay hidden from spiritual detection, one of the reasons why the Soul Society did not have a strong foothold in this corner of the area. It was strongest at Mount Myoboku and other spiritual locations, permeating throughout the Elemental Nations and obscuring them from view on the grand scale. It was actually unsettling to think about... What happens to most of the souls there?

Was that the reason why he did not know of many more people from his era in the Soul Society? People like Kakashi and Jiraiya and Sasuke... What made Naruto and his friends different? Why did Sakura and Shikamaru and all the rest manage to get to the Soul Society, while all the rest did not? Were they in the Soul Society, hidden in the Rukongai? Or did they all become hollows?

He tried not to think about that anymore, pushing those thoughts from his mind. Dwelling on all of that would only lead to confusion.

He enjoyed spending time with the toads though, in the sparse moments that he could. They were a link to his past, somehow having managed to continue to live so long after Naruto's era ended. Some of the other shinobi villages were still around, but they were not thriving as they used to. It saddened Naruto to think that they were a dying breed, and not many of them ever left the Elemental Nations in the first place.

The entire mountain was a strange place, and he remembered travelling there with Jiraiya not too long before his death. He did not know all of the details, but most of the landscape was much the same. The sacred place was apparently long-lasting, helping the toads and other related wildlife to thrive. It made him happy to think about, to think that some part of his former life was still around. Or at least, there was some part of his former life still around that did not hate his guts like the Hyuuga-Sarutobi. It saddened him to think of what happened so many years ago.

Gamakichi lead him through another room, revealing the quarters of the Great Toad Sage, a withering toad with brown skin that was somehow still alive after all this time. It was huge, but not as large as Gamabunta in the other room. The sage toad was wearing a necklace charm with the word for 'oil' in kanji.

Naruto quickly greeted the toad, before explaining that the seal needed to be tightened.

**"I see,"**  the sage said, weighing the information.  **"Have you been using it?"**

Naruto nodded. "Yes, but only for training. I've never used it on an enemy or a hollow since the first time that I had it fifteen years ago."

**"Has it become difficult? Painful?"**

The shinigami considered the question, remembering the slightly burning feeling coming from the seal after the last training session where he had tried to control the physical chakra sealed within him. It was very hard to use, and he only dared to do so sparingly. The duty to the squad was more important than learning to control Kurama, so he did not get a lot of time trying to subdue the fox's abilities.

The Kyuubi scoffed. **Yeah, yeah, like you'd ever have a chance**.

The toad turned to him and pulled something from the pouch on his stomach. A giant brush and an inkwell. He sat the inkwell on the ground, the thing easily up to Naruto's chest in height, and then dipped the brush into the ink.

The creature made a handsign, channeling energy from around him into the inkwell, and the toad oil inside the well began to become tainted with black. The brush absorbed the liquid instantly, before the sage raised the brush.

Naruto quickly pulled his shihakusho down until the obi was holding up the bottom half, his scarred torso bare for everyone to see. The seal appeared on his abdomen, and the moment that the toad touched the seal with the brush, the Kyuubi screamed obscenities.

The black ink seemed to swirl into the seal, strengthening it while the pain was incredible. Naruto dropped to his knees, his body not used to the stress despite having done this before. He muffled his scream, clawing at the fabric of his uniform while the Kyuubi roared within his mind.

It cursed him, shouted in pain, expressed its desires to bifurcate him and then devour both pieces. He whimpered when the feeling did not cease, the toad oil and natural energy mixture enough to even effect his spiritual body.

After ten minutes of torture, he collapsed and heaved, the toad sage pulling the brush away and putting it back within the pouch at his sides. Gamakichi approached and placed a large webbed hand on his back gingerly.

"I forgot how much that hurt," he muttered under his breath, clearing his throat and trying to stand. He eventually found himself upright, looking at the old toad before him with reverence. "Thank you very much."

He inspected the seal, seeing that the strange markings were gone and that the tattoo looked relatively normal again, despite the subject matter. It faded away from sight as he readjusted his uniform.

"I'd be more careful about using that power of yours," explained the orange and blue toad standing next to him. "You never know when it will have to be fixed if you use it all the time."

The blonde nodded. "Yeah, I know. I don't use the chakra that often, and when I do, it's only for a few minutes at the most. The seal just does not seem to be very good or last a very long time."

The Great Toad Sage gestured for the two of them to leave, and Naruto returned to the large chamber where Gamabunta was waiting. "Thank you so much, you guys."

"No problem, Uzumaki. Visit more often, although on better circumstances. You're still trying to maste-"

"Yeah, I am. It's going relatively well, actually. I just do not really know if it will work in theory yet, but if I can figure it out, I'll let you know. I'll probably need your help if I ever manage to learn the process and make it work for me."

Gamakichi shrugged. "If anyone can figure out how to use that technique as a shinigami, it's Jiraiya's student."

Naruto wished them well before leaving, aiming for the Japanese mainland. He noticed someone's presence following him, but he did not think too much of it. It was likely just Gamakichi or one of the other toads, so he kept pushing forward. After a moment, the signal disappeared and he let it go.

* * *

Sentaro stared at the date on the calendar, something clicking in his mind. He ran through current mission assignments, realizing that something was amiss. "That's weird. Rukia Kuchiki should have come back from the World of the Living yesterday."

Kiyone, having heard his suggestion, frantically flipped through several papers and realized that he was right. "She's exceeded the time limit of her assignment!"

Sentaro did not really know what to think, but surely it was fine. He tried to the find the record of her last update, but that was over a week ago with the defeat of a hollow named Shrieker and the Konso of a soul named Yuichi Shibata. "She has not reported in for a week."

"It probably doesn't mean anything," Kiyone tried, but Sentaro shook his head.

"It might not, but we cannot take any chances."

"What do we do?" the girl asked, looking at him gravely. Overstaying in the World of the Living was against the rules, but more importantly, it was dangerous. What if something bad had happened to her?

"Standard procedure," Sentaro began, frowning at the notion of what that meant. "We'll call in the Stealth Force to investigate her activity."

Kiyone paled at that, but another glance down at the paper work revealed something else that might be useful. "Lieutenant Uzumaki is in the World of the Living though. Maybe we could send him to look?"

The other co-Third Seat considered the option, wondering if it might be better than getting someone from the Stealth Force involved.

* * *

Naruto finally stopped in the skies above Japan, wondering what he should do now. He most likely needed to go directly back to the Soul Society, but his mind drifted to those of the squad currently stationed in Japan, Karakura Town in particular. Rukia Kuchiki was assigned there, and he almost wanted to check on her.

But deciding that it was better to leave it alone, he drew his blade to activate the Senkaimon. But before anything could happen, his Soul Phone started to ring. An update on a hollow nearby?

No, that usually did not happen unless you were on an assignment and they sent you an update. This was different, and it unnerved him.

A message appeared on the screen.  _"Lieutenant, we may have a problem. Rukia Kuchiki's assignment ended yesterday, but she has not reported to the barracks, nor has she updated her assignment since last week. We decided to explain it to you, knowing that you were already in the World of the Living, so that you could investigate the situation. Kiyone and I wanted to avoid using the Stealth Force just in case."_

The blonde looked up from the message, wondering what that could actually mean. The date was right, it was the 17th of June and she should have returned. Had something happened to her?

He sprang into action, flash-stepping through the air as quickly as possible, in case something was amiss. He routinely sent out his spiritual "sonar", trying to find any inclination of where Rukia could be near the city of Karakura Town as he hastened toward it. He knew it was dangerous to do that, most likely a beacon for any hollow within ten kilometers of his location.

The city was a bustle of activity, but it was lacking in spiritual pressure aside from a wandering ghost or two. Knowing that the situation might be dire, he decided to ignore the pluses for now, speeding toward the heart of the city and landing atop a roof that looked to be a hospital.

He tried once more to sense for the familiar reiatsu of Rukia, and after a short moment, he found it on the edge of his radar. But there was something else amiss about the area, two strong pressures nearby nearly overwhelming hers in pure intensity. If he could analyze either source, he would likely find that they were strong in pressure but not necessarily in size. Surely nothing around here could be nearing the size of a high-seated officer other than himself, and he was only at one-fifth the power at the moment.

He sped toward the area, keeping his own reiatsu down as he headed to a small wooded area on the edge of town, a small graveyard atop a hill. Running in the rain was not fun at all, but he tried to ignore the water streaming down and soaking his uniform.

Something changed, a flash of bright blue and white light on the horizon almost like cackling lightning. He sped up in desperation, hoping to find the source and hopefully help Rukia in whatever was attacking her.

"Coward!" a voice shouted into the sky, and a dark shape seemed to disappear into the clouds and through a Garganta.

Naruto emerged from the clearing, watching an orange-haired shinigami bleeding from his shoulder, holding his sword, his blood mixing with water on the ground. "Ichigo, it's over!" The familiar face of Rukia, seemingly wearing modern clothing, approached the figure, holding onto both shoulders. "You did it! You stopped him! Put down your sword and rest! This battle is over!"

The other shinigami looked up suddenly, watching the rainclouds in the sky. "No, it isn't! It won't be over until I've killed him! I have to! I will avenge my mother!"

"Ichigo!" Rukia cried out, and Naruto could not be more confused by the situation. Who was this person and why did he look like Kaien?

* * *

Naruto paced back and forth, flipping the top of his Soul Phone open and closed again and again. He half expected to be contacted at any moment by the Captain or by Sentaro and Kiyone, but he did not know what to say or what to do.

Eventually, he noticed the figure of the woman coming down the hill, her garb still that of a modern sundress with a hat fixed on her back. She approached him cautiously, not sure what to think about the situation. Naruto did not know either.

"Um, sorry that I couldn't speak more about this earlier, Lieutenant. I had too much to take care of with Ichigo's family, I had to sneak away to meet you after they went to bed."

He shrugged. "It's fine. So what's the deal? Why haven't you reported back in? Who is this kid? What did Grand Fisher want with him?"

She looked like she was going to choose her words carefully, as though she had been expecting this visit or a visit from someone all along.

"Grand Fisher apparently killed his mother a few years back, and when Ichigo realized it, he had to fight to avenge her."

After a couple of moments where it seemed she was finished, he gave her an expectant look. "And? Who is he in the first place?"

"I need an extension to my assignment," explained Rukia, almost unintelligibly blurting it out. "There's too much going on here for me to leave now."

"I'll see what I can do, if you'll tell me what's going on in the first place." He was not about to let her get away with not explaining the details.

She sighed. "The night of my arrival here, I immediately was alerted to a large reiatsu signature. That signature was Ichigo Kurosaki."

"A shinigami from another division that was stationed here?" asked Naruto, thinking that to be odd. Usually they don't double-up on assignments, and Karakura has always been part of the Thirteenth Division's jurisdiction.

She shook her head gently, a carefully practiced motion like she was stepping on a minefield. "No. He was a human with a high amount of reiryoku."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Was? What is he now?"

"He was able to see me that night, even touch me, and when a hollow was attracted to him and threatened to attack his family, he broke through a Kido I placed on him and ran out to try to help me protect his sisters. I protected him from a fatal attack, and in order to protect all of us, I... I tried to give him part of my powers so he could save both of us."

The tension in the air was palpable, and Naruto gulped at the implications of that serious crime. "A human with shinigami powers? Like Kugo Ginjo?"

She nodded slowly. "Except it did not happen temporarily. He somehow took too much of it, almost all of it, and this entire month, I've been helping him protect Karakura Town in the meantime while my powers return. Except they haven't been returning, I can barely cast low-level Kido."

Naruto strummed his fingers on his hip, trying to process this. Giving powers to a human was a very serious offense, very serious. The Thirteen Court Guard Squads and Central 46 would not take that well at all.

"Rukia, that's grounds for an execution."

She sat down on the bench, hugging her arms around her knees. She looked scared. Alone. Terrified of what could come. Naruto did not really know what to make of this news.

They were both quiet for what seemed like a long time before Naruto finally asked, "Is it because he looks like Kaien?"

Her eyes bugged out, and she looked at him straight in the eye, shocked. "What? I don't know what you mean."

Naruto sat next to her, giving her a playful look. "Oh, come on. He's practically the spitting image of our old Lieutenant, and you know it. What's the story there?"

"I don't know. I've just... never noticed it before."

The way she said it made Naruto think she was lying, but he didn't press the issue. She seemed a little uncomfortable with that information.

"What do you mean though? Even if he does look like Kaien, what are you asking me?"

"I'm asking why you want to stay so badly," explained Naruto. "I'm asking why you didn't try to come back to the Soul Society, or at least explain the situation for some leniency. If you were to ask me, it seemed like that was the only thing you could do at the time. But the guys in charge are not so reasonable." He remembered the Kido Cannon incident, and his whole body shuddered at the memory.

"I have to stay," explained Rukia. "I have to stay and help him some more. I can't go back and face them all, knowing what I did."

The way she said it was not a beg for help. It was not a beg for understanding, or for him to support her. It was simply her pride as a shinigami, as a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads, and as a former student of Kaien Shiba. Naruto knew then what he was going to do.

"I'll talk with Ukitake and see if he'll get you an extension," explained Naruto after a long moment of thought. "I can't make any guarantees though, and if that doesn't change, I don't know what more I can do."

The blonde was not really sure what she wanted to do with her extra time, but maybe if she were to gain her powers back during that time interval, then she could return to the Soul Society and not get into any trouble at all, as long as no one ever knew about Ichigo afterward.

Naruto took a deep breath, realizing that he had to get back very soon. "I've got to get going, and I'll request your extension. You send a request as well and try to act like nothing has changed. If I can send you a message, I'll let you know by noon."

She nodded, suddenly grateful but apparently dubious. "Why are you helping me of all people anyway?"

He smiled. "Eh, you're the one who's held a grudge after all this time, not me." She just laughed.


	12. Burning Petals

The site of the grand complex was interesting, full of Japanese influence like the rest of the Soul Society and the Seireitei. The land of the dead seemed to mimic the land of the living, but the traditional setting of feudal Japan was favored more than the modern feel.

Naruto had only visited the Kido Corps a few times, but each time was an experience. Of the three arms of the Seireitei military, the Kido Corps was perhaps the most secretive because it was not as directly associated with the maintenance of the World of the Living. The Stealth Force, the other arm of the military, highly influenced Squad Two, almost to the point where they were nearly the same entity. But the Kido Corps were less linked to his dealings, and it always felt like a foreign visit.

Each of the members was dressed like an ancient monk, covered in black and white robes and carrying interesting staffs that Naruto suspected were zanpakutou, but he could not be sure. The only bit of skin he could see were the eyes.

Naruto knew several people who excelled with Kido, Momo being the one who stood out the most to him. He smiled in her direction and snuck a squeeze to her hand, before righting himself and returning to proper protocol.

He was a bit of a dabbler himself, one of his most used traits when direct combat was not ideal. He liked to study the spells long before he started to regain his memory all those years ago, and it made him wonder. Did he have a talent for Kido because he was once a shinobi, and the techniques were similar but different? He had not had many ninjutsu in his repertoire when he was alive, but had it still influenced him enough that his afterlife was affected by it?

Either way, Naruto, Momo, and Kira were there to ask someone from the Kido Corps about the validity of a certain spell that Momo was working on.

"You sure this'll work?" asked Izuru, running his hand through his hair but carefully avoiding his gelled bangs. "We're not likely to get access to the high-classed officers on this at all."

"Well, in theory, I think it would work, but we have to be sure the elements are right," explained Momo. "Captain Aizen is one of the most skilled Kido practitioners in the entire Seireitei, and if the bits and pieces that could make up the spell came from him, then there's a good chance it could work."

Neither of the two blonde lieutenants could be sure of that, but Izuru was probably more confident than Naruto was when it came to Aizen. Naruto did not doubt his skills, but the captain left a bad taste in his mouth.

The particulars of creating a Kido spell, especially a Kido spell of this type, were very complicated and had to be precisely right so that the right effect happened with the right intensity. Naruto had never created a Kido before, but he had used Kido in combination before, and the parameters were not that different in principle.

"Could we not have asked for help from the SRDI?" asked Izuru again, stopping just out of earshot from the sentry at the opening to the main building of the complex.

"And let Kurotsuchi in on our idea?" asked Naruto, the guy nearly as bad as Aizen in his mind. "The guy's smart but he was part of that whole movement to kill me back when the Blanks attacked, remember?" Naruto was not exactly fond of the Captain of Squad Twelve after that, nor should he be. "I'm not gonna trust the creepy guy anyway." It reminded him of a certain snake-like man, and it was not a pleasant memory.

Kira and Hinamori did not argue, but instead moved toward the door. The sentry posted outside escorted them inside after they stated their business and showed their lieutenant sashes, and the three lieutenants then headed inside.

The inside of the circular room was filled with scrolls in every sense of the word, covering the thick shelves lining the walls. It was like a very large, in-depth library filled with prominent writings that formed the basis of Kido, its spells, and abilities. The theory was a very dynamic one, as it seemed to change every few centuries with one particularly intelligent shinigami devising a new way to look at it.

He spotted a scroll from Kisuke Urahara and smirked; of course the caned bastard had something written here.

A robed member walked forward, the three-pronged circular insignia of the Kido Corps on her chest. She bowed lightly to them, and they in turn. "Lieutenant Kira, Lieutenant Hinamori, and Lieutenant Uzumaki. What business do you have with us?"

Momo stepped to the forefront. "Well, we were actually hoping to speak with the Captain or the Lieutenant, if that is possible."

"Our idea is a little confidential, ma'am," Naruto offered, a little unsure of what to think and how the Corps would react.

The robed woman eyed them a little suspiciously. They were very secretive with their dealings, only sharing what was necessary. Ideas like this, however, were so dynamic that only those devising it needed to do beforehand.

"I apologize, but our officers are currently busy," the woman decided. "If you wish to speak about your business, I will accept your message and pass it on to those that need to hear it."

The three of them looked at each other for a moment before turning back to the woman. Momo spoke up first. "We have an idea for a Kido that I found specs for from Captain Aize-"

Immediately, her eyes paled. "I'm afraid that you will have to handle that on your own."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Wait, why? You don't even know what it's for yet!"

"You'll have to excuse me, I have some very important business to take care of. See yourselves out, but do not touch anything." And with that, the robed woman walked out of the room, despite Naruto's loud complaints that brought far too much attention to them.

"Damn it," the Squad Thirteen Lieutenant muttered. "Now what?"

"I guess we'll have to try to arrange the spell on our own," Momo explained.

Izuru looked at both of them expectantly. "The SRDI is still an option. With something like this, the moment we figure it out, we'll have to share it with them and they'll have to test it, format it to fit their needs."

Naruto shook his head. "Not a chance."

* * *

The pink-haired shinigami touched down on the ground, thankful to be able to stretch her legs in the World of the Living without the interference of other squad members. She was a little surprised that Unohana had been so willing to let her travel to the other side by herself for a routine medical operation; most operations from the Interdimensional Relief Team she had created herself were done in small groups after a battle. This was just her.

"Hmm, maybe the Captain trusts me more than I thought."

Sakura was looking at this trip as more of a resting trip. More often than not, she would probably have a few hours where she didn't have to worry about anything before heading back.

The modern world was so very different from the kind of world that Naruto had described, and she wondered what the far-off islands looked like now, and why it was isolated from the Seireitei's usual business, aside from the occasional wandering soul.

She didn't remember any of the Elemental Islands herself, but she wished that she did. She wished she could understand the life she had lead before, and what had caused it to be cut short. Admittedly, she had lived to be a couple of years older than Naruto had, but she wanted to know what she had been like. What she had accomplished, if anything. Had her life had meaning?

She passed by a clothing shop and wondered if she should get into a gigai and take some human clothes. There was a cute pink sundress that she thought would look interesting on her, but in the end, she decided it was best not to bother. She wouldn't be here long enough to need to hide herself, and Karakura Town was relatively quiet enough that she could relax for a bit and escape matters of life and death.

She enjoyed watching people, admiring their little busy lives, unaware of the other dimensions spinning around them. Most found some sense of purpose, an ideal to strive to be. Some found it in fiction, others found it in religion. It was interesting to see that most people had an inherent goodness in them, even if that was only in fleeting moments.

Sakura wondered what it would be like to have a long-term assignment like Rukia Kuchiki, where she would truly be able to assimilate into the world and watch it unfold around her. Her efforts to get Squad Four more involved with the World of the Living had met with some success; the Relief Team was able to traverse the boundary between the shinigami world and the human world only in times of stress. These occasions like Sakura's visit were not often.

The pink-haired woman passed through another busy street, not bothering to look where she was going. She was passing through pedestrians as she walked across the street, not able to touch them as if she were only an invisible mirage.

She stepped onto the opposing sidewalk and pondered the road rules that the humans seemed to abide by. It made sense that they would need rules to control the vehicles they drove, but it was difficult to relate them to the Soul Society.

The healers of Squad Four had traditionally been required to stay in the afterlife, for the reason that it was too dangerous for them. But as Sakura saw an ambulance roll through an intersection, sirens blaring as it sped dangerously down the road, she wondered why human emergency personnel were able to be active, and yet the Interdimensional Relief Team was still met with such high disregard by the nobles. Sakura was essentially a laughingstock at parties for even having the idea, and her entire team was barely active at all.

Should they not be able to head to the World of the Living and see if their medical skills can save lives? Theoretically, they could ensure a human's survival from the spiritual plane, but would that upset the balance of transmigration? Why was there such a backlash about the very idea?

 _The damned nobles are probably just worried that too many of us will die facing hollows, and we won't be able to save their sorry asses if they ever breached the walls,_ Sakura thought.

The idea of breaching the walls of Seireitei was never publicly discussed, but privately, it was a huge topic of conversation. Ever since the Blanks were able to amass such a large force strong enough to burst through the sekkisekki barrier, the shinigami had been considering ways to strengthen the walls and the city inside. Captain Komamura had been championing the idea of building turrets made of sekkisekki inside the city, with smaller, individualized Kido cannons, but it had never gotten past the idea stage. The nobles did not want the Seireitei to begin looking like a military compound, and Central 46 was pressured enough not to even consider the idea.

Sakura sighed at the implication and rushed off toward the ambulance, hoping to be there in the case that someone passed away. She opened her spiritual senses, not sensing anything out of the ordinary in the direction of the incident, whatever that incident was. A Soul Phone might have been helpful, but since this was not a long-term assignment, she had to deal without it.

She caught up to the ambulance within a few flash-steps, trying to keep her reiatsu down to a reasonable degree so as to not attract attention. She made one last step inside, sliding through the walls of the vehicle and landing carefully on her toes.

The two emergency personnel were trying to bring an unconscious little girl back to a stable condition, attaching an oxygen mask to her face and trying to close the wound on her side. Her shirt was open, revealing that there was what looked like a gunshot on her left side, and Sakura could not have felt worse.

The little girl's soul had not appeared, so she had not yet passed away. Sakura activated a healing Kido and bent down next to her body, trying to keep her attention focused on the hands over her wound. The EMTs continued to pass through her body, trying to assert the situation and shouting commands to each other, as the vehicle continued to speed down the streets.

Sakura whispered to herself to keep herself calm, trying to staunch the blood by accessing the spiritual half of the girl's energy. Her green, concentrated reiryoku spread into the girl's inner soul sleep and booster, trying to jumpstart the girl's spiritual half so that it could fight on to keep the physical half alive. It was a difficult process because humans were usually so physically-oriented these days that their spiritual selves are so miniscule that she was not sure that this would actually work.

The girl's form began to flicker with white light, and her soul entered the van, the chain elongating until she was lying in the corner, still unconscious. Sakura frowned, continuing her spell to keep the girl alive. She began to chant the basic incantation for this spell.

**_"Touch of death to instill hope, powerful tide bringing rebirth. The ending will recede into a new beginning."_ **

The green energy became far more vibrant than before, and she continued to shout the spell at the top of her lungs, chanting again and again to increase its power. She watched as the chain began to shorten, disappearing into the body of the girl once more.

The girl deserved to live longer. Deserved to have more, do more, be more. This girl did not need to give up her life for the Rukongai. Sakura continued her machinations, and when the blood began to stain the white fabric of the girl's spirit, she knew that it was working. She was getting closer and closer to life again.

After several more minutes, the spirit of the girl finally joined with the body, the chain of fate disappearing until there was nothing left. Sakura sat back for a long moment, knowing that she had most likely saved the girl from certain death. When she was certain that the EMTs had arrived at the hospital, she slipped out of the van and tried very hard to ignore the pit of exhaustion in her stomach.

She leaned against the wall of the stark-white hospital near the entrance, trying very hard to calm her panting breath. Sweat was pouring down her body, and she wondered why it had been so difficult to heal the girl. She had healed much greater wounds much more swiftly, so why had it been so difficult?

Sakura must have laid against that wall for several minutes, but when something peaked on her spiritual scale right next to her, her entire body shook away the exhaustion. The Fourth Seat looked to her left, a silver-haired, well-dressed man in all white and a doctor's coat standing there, looking out into the parking lot. The doctor lit a cigarette, his pale blue eyes glinting in the sunlight.

Was this pressure coming from him? What in the world could that mean? Who was this man?

Sakura's hand inched toward the hilt of the blade at her side, but the man turned to watch her movements. He did not seem impressed or phased by the possibility that she had a sword, whomever the man was.

After a quick moment of intimidation and fluctuating spiritual pressure, the doctor turned and faced the door, almost ignoring her completely. "You saved the girl, but your services are no longer required, shinigami."

Despite Sakura's sputtering, he walked into the hospital calmly, and the Fourth Seat could not have been more confused. When she rushed into the hospital to pursue him and demand answers, he had seemingly vanished the moment he stepped into the building.

"Who the hell are you?"

* * *

Naruto was in the courtyard of the barracks, his sword in hand. He stepped through several basic formations, practicing his Zanjutsu by building on the textbook Academy teachings. He sometimes felt that he did not have a unique style, despite so many years of training and sparring. Sentaro and Captain Unohana always tried to tell him differently, but he could sense it.

Compared to other users of a wakizashi-style blade, he supposed that he might have a different style closer to that of a brawler. Squad Two and the Stealth Force were notorious for using wakizashi length zanpakutou, but their style was all about quick, surprise stabs that could end a fight before it even began. Naruto felt like he was closer to the other way around, but he often wondered if his Zanjutsu suffered because of his reliance on Kido and his Shikai.

The formulation of the Kido spell they were working on had to be built from the ground-up, on their own. The Kido Corps were obviously not going to give them any help, but not a single one of them had the slightest clue why. The officer they had talked to had shooed them out the moment they mentioned Captain Aizen's name, but why was that? Naruto may not have liked him for personal reasons, but admittedly, the captain had never wronged the Soul Society or its operations. Why would the Kido Corps mistrust him, when he had probably contributed to their studies himself?

It didn't make any sense, Naruto wondered, slashing diagonally in a move that might have cut into the shoulder of an unprepared enemy. He followed up with a quick twist and a swing to the left, decapitating the imaginary opponent before turning and stabbing into the gut of the fake hollow behind him.

He put his body on autopilot, letting his muscles work on the specifics while he ran his mind over and over again on how to solve the mystery of Aizen's spell. Both Momo and Kira had offered to just find the Captain and ask him about it, but Naruto had talked them out of it. The Squad Five leader might not appreciate his lieutenant finding something on the man's desk, something that might have been confidential in the first place.

His mind suddenly switched gears, thinking of all the assignments that he had situated recently. He figured that his subconscious was trying to remind himself of something by bringing up such a stray thought, but he ran through a checklist in his head of everything he had done that day.

The day, July 17... His mind widened when he realized that it had already been about a month since he last met with Rukia, and her assignment would be up today. It had been such a challenge to convince Captain Ukitake to ask her older brother about an extension, and they only got it because of that convincing argument that a month was not enough time to really get a grasp on an assignment like this. They had been lucky, if truth be told.

But now was the end of the second deadline, and he knew that Byakuya would be far more attentive this time. Naruto wondered if the co-Third Seats had noticed that it was the deadline, and he didn't think he would be that lucky.

Rukia was a strange case, and his mind wandered to the boy he had seen during that visit. A human with shinigami powers, powers that were supposed to have been temporarily given to him so that they could defeat a hollow and protect the boy's family. But he had stolen much more than she had intended to give him, somehow, and Naruto really wished that he understood the specifics of why that was possible. Shikamaru or Samui might could figure it out, though, but he didn't want to let anyone else in on this.

 **Secrets, secrets, secrets. You sure are hiding a lot from your colleagues and comrades, aren't you, boy?** The Kyuubi said slyly, and Naruto could picture its angry smirk from inside his mind.

 _"The institution itself hasn't exactly treated me in the best possible way,"_  Naruto countered silently, remembering the Kido Cannon's energy flashing toward him from the sky.  _"Not all the time anyway. I don't like the callous loss of life, and I could have been on the receiving end. Greater good or not, it's disheartening. They don't need to know about you, because I don't feel the need to be sacrificed for that same end, to protect everyone around."_

Naruto would hold the Kyuubi until such a time when he couldn't, which would hopefully be never. He was not as worried about releasing it because he did not think it could even survive on the spiritual plane, but Naruto did not feel like dying again to test that extraction theory. If for some reason the physical Yang Kyuubi could exist in an opposing environment, then it could cause quite a bit of damage with the possibility that it might be too difficult to defeat normally.

**Whatever you say, kid, but you'll realize one day that you are far more angry than you care to admit.**

He sighed lightly, bringing his sword to his side and wiping the sweat off his brow with his free hand, his hair dripping wet. He had been training for probably three hours, and it was time to head in and brainstorm what to do for Rukia, if there was something that he needed to do at all.

Best case scenario, she would return to the Seireitei with her full powers at the end of the day, Ichigo would be human again, and they could forget the whole incident ever happened.

* * *

Sakura's mind was still trying to wrap her head around the man she had seen, standing on the roof of a department store and watching the city move by. If she focused hard on her spiritual senses, she could feel several in the city, not all of them large. One presence so dwarfed the others that she thought she must be seeing Urahara, the exile who ran the shop on the other side of town.

She was keeping a lookout in case she was needed again, but the faster the day went by, the sooner she would have to return to the World of the Living. The pink-haired shinigami stood suddenly, however, when several pressures began to intensify, growing more and more frequent every second.

She looked toward the sky, watching as Garganta after Garganta began to open, low-level Hollows rising from the cracks and shooting toward the streets. Her breath caught in her throat when she noticed the sheer multitude, coming in again and again as the sun finished setting and the night took over the city.

They spread out evenly, starting in a central location and heading in several directions, seemingly randomly. She cursed aloud and rushed off of the roof, slicing through the air with her Shunpo and leaping between buildings.

She decided to head for the center, trying to discard her inner dread at the implications of what the hell all this meant. She had never seen this many hollows at once, and she had no Soul Phone to call in help. Sakura could not use a Kido to send for reinforcements either because she didn't have the right materials to call all the way into the Soul Society.

"Damn it," she muttered, controlling her reiatsu and slamming a foot into the back of a tentacled hollow pursuing her. It was sent rocketing backward before exploding against the wall of a building, breaking two windows and shocking the people inside.

Sakura twisted through the air as her radar picked up on several signals heading for her, a half-dozen hollows of various sizes heading for her. She raised a palm and fired several Shakkaho, taking two out in fiery explosions before they reached her.

A flurry of limbs and well-placed reiatsu defense blocked several strikes, a knee to the mask destroying a hollow that looked suspiciously like an anteater. She used her forearms to parry against claws and teeth, using her reiatsu as well as she could to make them defensive.

But a claw cut into her shoulder and she immediately flashed backward several yards, readying herself as the wound began to sting like acid. She ignored it and blasted another with a Shakkaho, before grabbing the mask-like horn of a rhino-shaped hollow, spinning, and then sending it flying painfully into one of the last few around her.

Sakura shot toward the struggling beasts and readied a fist at her side. "Ikkotsu!" she shouted, slamming a fist into the belly of the rhino-like hollow and cracking the concrete wall of the office building. The body broke apart like it was glass, the hollows behind it crushed by the force of the impact.

She leaped high to avoid the scorpion-like sting of a hollow's tail and then flipped, landing vertically on the mask of the creature with as much reiatsu condensed into her feet as she could muster. Sakura pierced completely through like some kind of sharp missile, the hollow evaporating on impact.

When she realized there were no more near her, she shot toward the center of the commotion, using healing Kido on the painful wound growing steadily on her shoulder. It was making her progress slow and she nearly stopped several times to make sure it was okay. Diagnosing the problem was difficult if the problem was on the healer itself, and she had to use several bits of her energy diverting to her natural regenerative capabilities to combat that hollow's acid-like poison.

If she could see the wound herself, it would probably look very bad. It definitely felt very bad, the pain spreading as the poison was slowly inching throughout her body. She cursed under her breath; if she did not recover quickly, she would not make it okay.

She stopped clumsily, landing in an alleyway but her leap's momentum was off. She practically slammed against the wall with her back, the pain continuing to spread and making her wince uncomfortably.

Sakura slid her uniform down around her shoulder, where there was deep gash spewing blood slowly. The blood vessels around it looked discolored, as though the poison was making them swell.

She cursed her stupidity, wishing that she had not let herself get hit in the first place. The Squad Four member tried to see the reflection in the steel of her zanpakutou, using it as a mirror to find the wound and see just how bad it was and how to repair it.

Healing yourself was dangerous; the more energy you drew away from your natural reserves to facilitate healing, the less energy that your body could use to sustain itself. She had to try very hard to be as careful as possible, so she didn't bottom out all of her energy.

Another hollow roared loudly in the distance, and she grimaced, wishing that the wound would heal already so she could help. Her sword sat at her side, glinting in the pale green light of the healing Kido.

It was getting better; she was systematically rejecting the poison and removing the hollow reiatsu left behind. The influence of foreign reiatsu invading the body could have detrimental effects on her health later on, and she had to remove it so that she could repair the rest and remove the toxins.

Sakura wished that she had a one-quick antidote, but hollows were far too individual to make an antidote for any kind of poison. They were all too different.

The black and red reiatsu began to pour out of the wound, relieving some of her stress. More hollow signatures spread around her, but they did not seem to notice her or follow after her. She had no time to ask why, several minutes passing where the only thing on her mind was the incantation rolling off of her lips quietly.

This was why nobles weren't anxious to get the healing squad involved with the World of the Living. She needed another person to truly heal this without damaging other body systems, but despite all her training from Captain Unohana and Lieutenant Isane, she might still succumb to the poison by using her own energy to supply it.

If she could isolate the poisoned area from the rest of her cells, she could use Dokushibireru's shikai ability to numb the area and stop the spread. Sakura had to shudder at the idea of using it on herself; it was more dangerous than humans and their radiation therapy. Her ability to slow the movement of spiritons only had so many healing applications, and with her already exhausted state, she wasn't sure she could restart those spiritons and revert them to normal levels after the poison was removed. On other people, it could work because it would be more controlled.

She slammed her head against the brick behind her, the spell flickering out. She had been here for probably twenty minutes trying to heal herself, and she nearly had all the hollow reiatsu removed from her shoulder. The cut was already scarring lightly under her tender care, and she had to admit that it would have looked badass if the poison was not about the kill her.

A hollow suddenly careened toward her from the roof of the building, looking like a giant floating purple skull with tendrils swinging out of the back of its skull. She immediately cut off the spell, rolling to the right and dodging the sharp talons that bored into the concrete.

Sakura held up her sword, blocking the counterattack swipe of the talon _. I wish I could use both arms._

She twisted quickly, roundhouse kicking the hollow into the side of a metal dumpster before flipping backwards speedily, careful not to use her left arm. The pain was distracting, and she was very afraid that she would hit rock bottom in only a few moments.

The creature stood up, screeching loudly before its bony mask twisted into a grin.  **"You're weak, shinigami! Pathetic!"**

Sakura backed up, holding a glowing Kido over her shoulder, the only thing keeping her stable at this point. She had to hope that she had slowed its spread.

 **"Looks like I may actually get a nice meal today! A high-ranking officer, huh?"** The monster flashed its spiritual pressure, pulsing it through the area and she nearly visibly collapsed. She knew that without her wound, she would have more than enough to defeat the hollow. But it was too dangerous to even hold a defense, her reiryoku levels plummeting.

She made a move for the sword at her belt, before realizing that her blade was yards away underneath her opponent, lying against the wall where she had been using it as a mirror.

 **"Nah-ah,"**  the creature said.  **"No zanpakutou for you!"**  Immediately, the hollow shot toward her like speeding bullet. Sakura weakly held out a hand, gathering her spiritual pressure into her palm. "Come and get it."

The masked opponent slammed against her hand, her arm boosted enough not to be overtaken by the creature's onslaught. It was like a truck hitting a brick wall, and nearly every bit of concentration she had, faltered as the cracks spread on the monster's mask. It tried to back up painfully, angrily as she had somehow stopped its attack with only one arm.

**"How the hell did you do that, you witch!?"**

She flipped out her other arm, wincing as the pain hit her, and called on a Kido.

 **"Bakudo Number Nine: Horin!"** From her extended fingers, a weak orange and yellow tendril shot out, whipping underneath the creature.

**"You missed, you pathetic weakli-!"**

The hollow was cut short when her zanpakutou embedded itself into the back of the monster, wrapped with the Kido and controlled carefully by Sakura. It screamed out with rage as it disintegrated, her sword dropping to the pavement.

She had enough time to take a deep breath before collapsing totally, her mind fading into unconsciousness.

* * *

Naruto stared at the message he had scrawled, wondering if it would be enough information to give out for her to understand. It would hopefully explain what he knew of the situation, but the situation was definitely not good.

News broke very fast when it was revealed that a Menos Grande had appeared in Karakura Town, and had been retreated after a short time. Mysterious fluctuations in the area had been monitored, and Rukia had been forced to send a small report explaining that she was dealing with the aftermath.

It would buy her some time, but definitely not enough for another official extension. Naruto cursed under his breath at the situation, wondering just how all of this had happened.

A Menos Grande? The blonde shuddered at the thought of such a powerful hollow, although another part of him wondered how he would fare against one. They were fearsome creatures, powerful enough that most lieutenants could not handle one on their own. And that was only the Gillian-Class.

His mind was reeling at the implications of who could have defended Karakura Town from that kind of power. Most of the Squad was amazed at Rukia's accomplishment, surprised that she had it in her. Others assumed that the exile Urahara was involved, and that might have been true; he had once been a captain himself.

But Naruto was the only one who was truly frightened by the possibility; had the boy Ichigo fought off a Gillian on his own? Was it even possible for the human with borrowed power to be strong enough? Could he become a Ginjo-level threat?

No matter what, Naruto could not share what he knew. News would probably break fast enough on its own, but this was too much. Rukia was counting on him to understand the best possible method, and he looked at the message on his desk and scowled before tossing it.

"Sentaro, watch things here. I've got to run and take care of something. Be back soon." The Uzumaki shot through the door before the Third Seat could even comment from behind the man's desk.

Naruto had to figure this out, and he knew the best person to ask. Using Shunpo, he ran along the rooftops, hoping to get there as soon as possible. It was getting so close to dark that he knew he was running out of time.

He stopped in front of the gate, hurrying inside and requesting an audience with the nearest guard. "I need to speak with Third Seat Nara in private, please."

Within minutes, he found the man lying face-up on a couch inside the common area. Of course, Shikamaru was pretending to be asleep, and the others in the room were flooding in and out, going to perform their duties while the brunette just sat there. A few people greeted the lieutenant, but Naruto shooed them off. He had more pressing matters to attend to.

"Shikamaru, get up."

"..."

"Get up. Now."

"..."

"Shikamaru, if you don't get up right now, I'll tell Lieutenant Ise that you once got so drunk, you fell asleep in your own vomit and probably laid in it for a full twelve hours."

"Damn you to hell, Uzumaki." The lazy shinigami slowly raised up, feigning fighting sleep, and Naruto looked at him expectantly.

"Come on, we need to go talk somewhere. It's important."

It took several seconds for him to finally rise up, and Naruto dragged him outside to a secluded area of the grounds. When they were sure no one was watching, Naruto took a deep breath.

"I'm trying to figure out a way to phrase this so that it doesn't sound really weird and out to the blue, but when you and Nanao were looking over records and files about Kugo Ginjo after he was killed, did you learn anything about the way he was given abilities?"

Shikamaru looked at him with almost no expression. "Uh, not really. It was unclear how many he took, but apparently, he stole the abilities of several shinigami and became what Ukitake branded as a substitute shinigami, a human with shinigami powers."

"Do you have any idea how powerful he really was? Like, if you were to class him?"

"You'd be the better judge of that than I would, Naruto. You fought him," deadpanned Shikamaru. "Why do you need to know all of a sudden?"

"Is it possible that he could have defeated a Menos?"

The brunette shook his head slightly, the confusion still etched on his face as to why all of this was being asked in the first place. "No, I don't think so. What does this have to do with the Menos that attacked Karakura Town?"

Naruto debated telling him the truth, but ultimately, he could not do it. It would have made the entire decision much easier if he had though. "I... uh, can't tell you. Confidential Squad business." That wasn't necessarily untrue; until it was necessary, Squad Thirteen would not need to declassify the report about what happened. "But one more thing. Have there ever been any other recorded attempts at giving humans shinigami powers?

"Yes, of course. It's expressly forbidden for more than just Kugo Ginjo. Usually it is such a fleeting experience for the human that it doesn't lead to other ramifications for the human world. But the shinigami is still executed for the crime, regardless of how it happened."

"Even if it was the only option and was necessary to protect someone's family?"

"Naruto... what's going on?"

The blonde shook his head, trying to wrap his head around the ramifications. He knew that execution was final, and that the order would stand the moment that Central 46 found out. But he was hoping that there might be some form of leniency, especially with such a high-profile brother like Byakuya who could likely pull strings in Rukia's favor.

For whatever reason, this entire ordeal was because of Ichigo Kurosaki. Rukia had protected his family by giving him abilities he could not control, and when he did, he stole more than he bargained for and left her powerless and stuck. The words of the message rang out in his mind, and he had to find a way to send it to her.

"Nothing." He looked toward the gate leading out of the Squad Eight grounds. "I've got to get going; Momo is waiting on me, and I need to head back first. I'll see you later this weekend for sake, okay?"

Shikamaru merely nodded, still confused about the bizarre situation. "All right."

The blonde lieutenant headed to the barracks, arriving as quickly as he could hoping he could send the message to her Soul Phone sooner rather than later. When he opened the door, the first thing he saw was the white captain's haori of a tall, pristine noble talking with Captain Ukitake. The name Rukia came up in conversation, and Naruto's heart was racing. Byakuya Kuchiki was easily the most intimidating captain on a bad day, and today was no exception.

Naruto bowed lightly. "Captain Kuchiki, good to see you again."

Byakuya bowed back, before turning once more to his conversation with Ukitake. Naruto moved around them uneasily, not sure if he should join in their conversation that was most likely about Rukia, or head to his desk in the next room and send the message to Rukia that she needed to hurry back as soon as possible.

He eventually decided on the latter, listening to Ukitake explain that they had received an update from her after the Menos Grande, and several other hollows, appeared and that was the last she had heard.

"So it appears that she's dealing with the aftermath of that attack? Could this have something to do with the disappearance of Sakura Haruno, the Fourth Seat of Squad Four?"

Naruto's eyes widened, his throat clamming up. Sakura was missing? He turned to the captains. "Sakura has disappeared?"

Captain Byakuya nodded. "Yes. Haruno was in Karakura Town when the Menos appeared, and her reiatsu signature seems to have vanished without a trace."

**So that chick you used to love died, huh? Pity; she got to hit you quite a bit when you were younger, just enough that I could live vicariously through her. You were, and still are, a pain in the ass, kid.**

Naruto sighed lightly, ignoring Kurama's remarks. "She's okay, though, right?"

"I'm not sure if we know just yet," Captain Ukitake explained softly. "The SRDI did not seem to think it was a death, but it's unclear."

Naruto nodded to them, trying not to get emotional over one of his friends. He walked toward the office room, trying to keep his mind off of Sakura. Rukia needed his warning, and he had to send it knowing that Byakuya was in the next room. He could still hear their conversation through the wall, and when he heard that Byakuya was going to pick her up himself the next night, Naruto's eyes widened.

_Rukia,_

_You need to return to Soul Society if you've got your powers back. If not, then leave town. Head anywhere else, just get out of the city. Your brother is coming for you tomorrow, and if he finds out about Ichigo, it will not end well for you or for him._

_Uzumaki._

A message like this would take an hour to reach her, and that could be an hour difference in her life. He sighed, wishing that no one was in this predicament at all. He quickly sent the message, but the moment he hit send, he regretted not mentioning Sakura's apparent disappearance. Maybe she would have known where to look and could save her if Sakura was in danger, before getting out herself.

He frowned, realizing that there was nothing that could be done on his end. The Stealth Force was looking for Sakura already, and he was a lieutenant. Personal feelings aside, he would have to wait until the Stealth Force came back to look for her himself, or to send any of Squad Thirteen to find her. It was a tricky situation, but he didn't think he could sneak away from the Seireitei long enough to look for her.

He would have to let the others look for her, and that bugged him more than anything. The feeling of uselessness was unnerving.


	13. Covering the Tracks

_**.:13:.  
Covering the Tracks** _

"And this is how the Kido will operate, then?" asked Lieutenant Kira, brushing his hands through his hair. "This is a lot more complicated than I thought."

The diagrams for the introductory kanji to create the source of the Kido spell were spread on the floor of Naruto's personal room in the Squad Thirteen barracks, several candles lighting the room and moonlight streaming through the window. Creating a spell from scratch was difficult work, and without the full consent of the Kido Corps, they were practically on their own.

"Yes, you're right, Izuru. It seems like it will work though, complex or not," Momo said confidently. She squeezed Naruto's hand affectionately, breaking his reverie. "You okay?"

Naruto shook himself from his own mind, grinning to reassure her. "Yeah, I'm all right. Just lost in my own thoughts."

 _You need to tell her about your involvement with Rukia's upcoming execution,_  his zanpakutou offered inside his mind.  _I can tell that the guilt is weighing on you; the trees are withering and there's a fog surrounding the clearing._

Naruto knew that Kusaritane was right. Who could be on his side but Momo?

When the squad received word that Rukia was in custody and scheduled for an execution, Naruto felt personally responsible. Yes, it was her fault that Ichigo had become involved; if she had had a few more seconds, maybe she could have figured out a way to attack Fishbone D without giving Ichigo her powers, and saving his family in the process. But it was not her fault that Ichigo had apparently taken more than she intended. It was, however, her fault that she had not tried to come to the Soul Society sooner with the detailed information of what happened. If she had, perhaps she might have gotten a more lenient sentence. A fighting chance is better than no chance at all, and right now, she had no chance.

"Naruto, what do you think about this array?" asked Momo, pointing to a swirling pattern of kanji that was divided into two directly in the middle. "It should work as a balancing agent in the spell's formula, right? It's modeled off of the source of the Senkaimon."

The Squad Thirteen Lieutenant could not really think about the kido formula, but he nodded nonetheless. She gave him another questioning look, wondering what was on his mind, and he just tried to give another smile to abate her.

He drifted back into his own internal dilemma, keeping enough focus on the conversation to ensure that Kira and Hinamori did not blow themselves up the first time they were to attempt the spell. He hardly knew much more than either of the other two Kido specialists, but this was a situation where the wrong phrasing on the scroll could lead to the incantation not working perfectly. And with something like the spell they were trying to create, that could be very bad news.

* * *

 **So what if she's going to be executed?**   _The Kyuubi stated, huffing from behind his wooden prison inside his inner mindscape_.  **It's her fault. You shouldn't stress yourself, although maybe if you did, the seal would weaken faster. On second thought, keep stressing, kid.**

_The inside of his mind seemed different every time that he performed jinzen, especially given the last few weeks. He felt conflicted and responsible and not responsible and carefree and all kinds of other emotions that he did not know how to process._

_Rukia may not have been his favorite person in the world, but he still felt like that wasn't enough reason to make him feel bad for what was going to happen. And yet, he was terrified more and more for his own life that she would explain how he was involved with helping her in the World of the Living. He had covered for her after all, and he could not trust that she would not tell the truth._

_He was sitting on pins and needles, and with the dark fog and the autumn-like leaves spreading inside the forest-like clearing, he had a visual representation of his inner turmoil. Kusaritane looked more haggard, the red-haired spirit's skin more gaunt and obviously affected by his struggle. Her clothing looked frayed, her white cloak with the orange kanji for Uzumaki almost in burning tatters. On the other side of the clearing, the wooden prison holding the fox was a little less colorful and almost charred from its presence._

_He almost shook from the possibility, wondering if he was going to need to have the toads repair his seal on his next training visit. Kurama did look as though he was more... lively, more ferocious, stronger and fiercer. It did not seem as though he was as restricted, and that was definitely not a good sign. Maybe the stress of his guilt really was getting to him?_

"It's not right to just pretend like Rukia's execution is not partially my fault," _Naruto countered, and Kusaritane placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed._

_"Do not forget that, Naruto. While I don't think you are to blame for her sentence, I do believe that if you had not agreed to cover for her or had turned her in, you may have spared herself from that sentence. And you may have spared your own life in the process."_

_He took a deep breath. He knew that his zanpakutou could not know anything that he didn't know deep down, because Kusaritane could only experience the world through his eyes and actions. Even if his sword spirit was a reflection of Kushina and Minato, it still came from him through his soul and his own power. He still liked to think, however, that his parents had their own voices inside the zanpakutou and that it was truly them speaking to him._

**It doesn't really matter, does it? Whatever happens, happens. You can't change the past and you can't change the sentence. It still sounds like I'll be on the upside in whatever happens.**

_The blonde shook his head at him, glaring. The Kyuubi was unlike his zanpakutou in that it did not come from his own soul. It was its own identity and had its own motives and its own wishes. And it utterly annoyed him to think that Kurama wanted Naruto to be executed in order for it to escape and wreak havoc._

"What do I do? Can I confide in anyone about this, or do I just let it go and hope that Rukia doesn't talk?"

_Neither of them had a clear answer, but he wasn't exactly expecting a clear answer from the fox anyway._

_"Do what you think is best," explained the redheaded zanpakutou._

**You** _**know** _ **I can't even begin to care.**

* * *

Her eyes flickered open with a start. The space behind her stomach near her spine throbbed as she moved. Her mind was racing, sweat pouring from a damp cloth around her neck.

She looked around her, realizing that she was sitting in some kind of desert, lying on a blanket that was drenched in sweat. Blue sky stretched everywhere, clouds seemingly fixed in place despite the light air flow around her. Buttes of red stone jutted up from the wasteland's floor, and a small hot spring was aligned at the base of a large mesa.

There were several people around Sakura, but her attention was definitely on the sight she did not expect to see: a teenage boy exhaustedly running from a seemingly normal little girl, who was hitting the ground hard enough to crack rock and stone. It took her several moments, and she blamed her wakening confusion, to realize that the orange-haired boy's Chain of Fate was dangling from his physical body lying on the ground.

Immediately, Sakura's eyes widened, and she snapped up against the pain running through her mind. She mentally began calling forth a healing Kido, running toward the spirit form of the boy running and dodging the girl's strikes with surprising amounts of speed.

She did not know where she was or what was going on, but she was not about to let that boy die.

"Stop," a voice said behind her, clasping on her shoulder. "You can't help him."

Sakura flipped around angrily, surprised to see Kisuke Urahara, the owner of the shinigami supply shop for when they were deployed in Karakura Town or the areas around it. His infamous hat and cane were not a welcome sight; he was a little bit annoying to deal with and his prices were not the best. Or so she's heard, anyway.

"What do you mean, I can't help him?! He'll die at this rate!"

The tall dark-skinned man she did not recognize lifted a hand and she recognized the familiar glow of a basic healing Kido. "I can help him to, but that would not get us anywhere."

The orange-haired teenager was a fighter, although if she had to guess, he was completely outclassed by this little girl. He had virtually no spiritual pressure, but her reiatsu was almost deafening in sparse moments. Definitely more than she would have thought possible from a little human girl, if she even was. Sakura recognized her and the little redhead as the shop's helpers, along with the taller man. But she could not place their names.

"If you help him, lady, he'll never get his shinigami powers back." The little boy said definitively.

"Uhhh... what?"

* * *

The series of mountains were rather large, but most of it was obscured by powerful mist that even clouded her eyes. She suspected that if she were to step into the thick of it, she would not be able to see more than a few feet in front of her. It clung to the highest heights, and she knew that the fog would thin at a lower altitude. And there was something strange about the energy in the area, because it kept her from using her spiritual senses to their fullest ability. It must have been a combination of all of that that kept Soul Society mostly away from the Elemental Nations.

The mysterious lands were full of strange creatures and people and abilities, but not many were still around today. Plagued by wars and even famine, most of the former political structure she could gather from any surviving locals (using a gigai of course) had fallen apart after the Fourth Great Shinobi War. Whatever that was.

Temari had the strangest feeling that she should not be here, but given what she was there to discover, she found no other choice. Tailing Naruto to the Elemental Nations had not proven to be a good way to learn anything; she was too afraid to get close for fear that he would find out.

It was her own motivation that brought her here, really. She was just as curious about her own life that Uzumaki claimed to know, as he was. He had not known much about her or her own life, only that she had living in a place called the Hidden Sand Village and had two brothers. And Temari was not exactly going to go out and ask him for more information.

So following him here was a plus for her, because she got to learn more about the world she grew up in while she was alive. She had always been curious; it must be something that every shinigami that had once been human felt at one point in his or her lifetime. Most just never had the opportunity to satiate that curiosity.

Her visit to the Hidden Sand Village, or what was left of it, had proved to not be as emotional as she had expected. No one lived there anymore, unable to trade with neighboring lands for goods or services. Eventually the desert killed them, and she imagined that was what would have happened eventually, even if the War had not occurred. Most of the survivors fled to the Lands of Fire and Earth, and she wondered if she was expected to feel badly about that.

Temari did not truly know her brothers. She did not know her family or her friends anymore. As she was now, she did not know her old life at all. The memories that Naruto recovered must have been a one-time event because of the Shinenju, and knowing him did not force her mind to revive those old memories. They just weren't part of her anymore.

It upset her that he was lucky enough to do that, but it did not necessarily upset her that she couldn't find any Sand villagers.

Temari took a long, deep breath. She had other things to attend to. Other things to worry about. Another breath later, and she shot over the edge of the cliff face.

She shunpo'ed through the air as quickly as she could, flashing into and out of existence for any potentially spiritually-aware observers on the ground. The mountain village stretched below him, busy and filled with more people than they could support. It, however, did not look as though they were living a very good life. People in dark red and brown military uniforms and sentries guarded nearly every corner. The civilians were haggard and looked as though they could not afford proper clothing.

She saw no signs of what Naruto had described as a Sand symbol, but she assumed that the survivors of the desert environment must have been assimilated into the new villages and lost their identity within a few generations. She literally had no idea where the survivors' descendants could be, but Temari pushed that away and tried to remind herself that it wasn't what she was here for.

She had already spent time scoping the place out, so she knew exactly where to go. There were several underground vaults, connected with intricate tunnels created by their ninjutsu. The entire Hidden Stone Village had a fixation on the earth, and their abilities were focused around building large walls and barriers and creating hidden escape routes deep under the earth. One thing that surprised her was that they had metallic support structures in some of the more important tunnels, built to not collapse totally so there is always a viable escape route.

Temari did not really know why, but studying the village's fortress-like defenses fascinated her. As a member of Squad Three, she paid a certain attention to the defensive capabilities of the Seireitei as they are often those in charge of maintaining the walls. Seeing the Hidden Stone Village's defenses interested her, and she often found problems with them. Choke points and wall thickness, using the natural mountain range as defensive backing, the river that runs through the town to the north that could easily be poisoned and slowly kill everyone there. It was the military aspect of her mind, but sometimes, she surprised herself with the things she could find as weaknesses.

It definitely seemed more heavily fortified than any other city she had ever seen in the World of the Living. Most other cities did not need that type of protection anymore, but the shinobi world was not as adapted to modern day as the other areas of the world. These nations were so cut off and obscured that she suspected they may not even be visible to those satellites that the modern world seemed to have. Probably the magic of the mist in the atmosphere, whatever it really was.

She stopped abruptly in the middle of a small courtyard, a great stone statue of a small man with a large nose, who looked as though he was holding a huge circular rock up with ease. She did not know who he was, but considering the ornate design made of the earth, she assumed that it was someone important to the village.

Temari took a deep breath before intangibly letting herself fall through the ground, dropping into the hidden underground chamber. The sensation of her body passing through physical matter was always very odd, like the solid matter flowing around her like liquid.

It took a full two minutes to fall far enough to reach the chamber's floor, passing through the solid bedrock before dropping. Torches were the only lighting available, and it gave the room way too many stretching shadows.

The hidden vault was an irregular circle, lined with a steel-like material that almost looked like it could be super-dense hardened rock. Its shape flowed in odd, hard waves, and she wondered if it had been carved from volcanic lava. Intricate symbols were woven into the floor and the walls and the ceiling, and they formed a full network of seals that reminded her of a spider's web. The outer lines of kanji slowly fell into the center of the room, where something stood on top of a dais.

It was a simplistic gold ring with etched designs and a bright red jewel right in the center. She stepped forward to inspect it further, smirking to no one.

Temari had finally found what she was looking for.

* * *

Sakura's mind was completely blown by all of this information. Rukia had illegally granted shinigami powers to a human? That was definitely not something to dabble in and do lightly, and there was a reason it was against the rules. At the same time, she could understand Rukia's point of view.

So Captain Kuchiki and Lieutenant Abarai came to Karakura Town, hunted Rukia down, and left the boy to die on the streets. Sakura could not help but feel that it might have been too harsh to do that, but at the same time, it made a lot of sense in the grand scheme of things and how the Soul Society views this offense. Destroy the soul sleep and booster so that he no longer has any powers, effectively eliminating the problem.

But now Rukia was going to die because of it? The execution had already been ordered, to take place in about one month's time. It was a serious offense, but was it that serious?

Sakura sipped her tea lightly, trying not to think about the information that had just been dumped on her. She sat at the table cross-legged on the floor, across from Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi, both former captains of the Seireitei in different legs of the military.

"One thing that bugs me that I don't think you ever answered," Sakura said suddenly, breaking the comfortable silence after the exposition dump. "How did I get here? Like, did one of you find me collapsed outside?"

An imperceptive Urahara grinned. "No, we didn't find you. An old acquaintance brought you here almost two whole days ago. He said that letting you die would leave him indebted to you for saving a little girl."

That confused her for a moment. Who could she be talking about? But then her mind returned to the strange man who had been seemingly human, but had been able to see her and talked to her.

"Oh, the white haired man at the hospital? What is the deal with him?"

Urahara shook his head. "A story for another day." He stood from the table, realizing that everything was a little too surprising at the moment ."All right, I need to head back down and help out with the second lesson. It should be ready now, I think. We need to all get ready."

"Me too?" she asked. "Because I'm thinking about heading back to the Soul Society, now that I've fully recovered."

Tessai shook his head, before sharing a glance with Urahara. "Well, we actually wanted to talk to you about that."

"We want to make a proposition for you, Sakura Haruno. There's someone that we want you to meet before you go back." The sly grin on his face stretched and the other shinigami could not help but feel slightly creeped out.

* * *

He awoke to the feeling of a piece of paper being pressed to his face, and he groaned audibly. He looked up groggily, wanting to turn back over when he saw his lieutenant staring over him.

"Nara, the results from the library have come back, the ones that you requested."

Shikamaru's attention was piqued only a little bit more than necessary, and he stood up from his bed in the barracks. He rubbed the back of his neck before turning back around to watch Lieutenant Ise adjust her glasses with a tight expression. "Anything interesting?"

She nodded, handing him the paperwork. "Squad members found monitoring records of energy surges that date back several decades. Recently, there's been an insurgence of spiritual activity."

Shikamaru interpreted the data in his hand in almost the blink of an eye. "So what's really interesting about this is that spiritual activity dropped off in that area for a period of almost seventy years, with almost no indication of any activity. The data accounts for shinigami activity, deaths and the appearance of hollows, but that entire period was almost insignificant."

Nanao nodded. "Yes, it appears so. Our scanners have difficulty locating spiritual pressures and spiritual matter in that area, so it could be tha-"

"No, that's not it. Our scanners work fine," Shikamaru realized, nodding lightly. "There's something that has been blocking them for this time. Is there a topographical map of the area?"

She thought for a moment, before realizing that she included one. "Flip to the second to last page."

Shikamaru did just that, putting the map face up on his dresser, wishing that he was more dressed in front of her than he was. He had removed his upper coat when he lied down, so he felt oddly vulnerable in front of her.

He quickly analyzed the map and overlapped it with the areas where they had the minor amounts of spiritual activity in his mind. "The inland areas have been mostly untouched. There's a significant spike here, in this forest area of the central island, right before it drops off into almost obscurity. The areas on the northern coasts have significantly more activity, even during the blackout period, but it is still enough of an impact that I think there's something here. Something is blocking us."

Lieutenant Ise followed his train of thought, confirming most of her own suspicions with his analysis. She was surprised, however, that something could be blocking the area from their sight. Most of Asia and even parts of Europe were in their jurisdiction, so it surprised her that there could be this hidden area. "It appears that elevation has something to do with it as well. Could it be related to the atmosphere?"

"Atmosphere?" asked Shikamaru, confused by her suggestion. "A naturally occurring compound that can block our reiatsu scanners is impossible."

"Are you suggesting that someone has blocked off the islands purposefully with an artificial gaseous compound?"

"It's a possibility," Shikamaru whispered, trailing off. "We need more data. Not enough points for a clear picture."

"We've done just about all that we can do with our records, and Central 46 won't authorize a mission there very lightly."

The man sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "I have to visit the creepy mad scientist, don't I?"

* * *

Naruto tried very hard to go over his game plan once again, but it was obvious that this was a definite issue. He stood outside the door, waiting for his turn to visit her. Renji was currently inside, talking with her adamantly about what happened to her.

When Naruto heard about what Renji and Captain Kuchiki had done to Ichigo, it definitely put a sour taste in his mouth. Ichigo had been helping the overall picture for weeks, defeating hollows with his borrowed powers and doing everything that Rukia could have done in that time span. He assumed, when he really broke it down, that it all came down to the fact that someone had driven away a Menos Grande. And that someone had been Ichigo, all on his own.

And that terrified even Naruto, to be honest. A mere human who had only had his powers for a few weeks managed to win a battle against a Gillian-class hollow. Sure, he may not have killed it, but he forced it away. And that was sufficiently horrifying.

But now the kid was powerless, if not dead, and he had no clue what to do about any of it. Sakura was still missing as well, as if he didn't have enough to worry about as it was.

Between the Kido they were developing, to Sakura going missing and her reiatsu signature vanishing, to his normal training and Bankai training regimens, he just was not busy enough to deal with what was happening to Rukia. And yet, here he was to talk to her, and she was about to lose her life.

He slid inside the room the moment he could, staring at her through the bars. Renji shot him an interesting look. "Here to see your subordinate, Lieutenant?"

"Here to see a friend," Naruto corrected. The tattooed shinigami frowned at the implication but did not comment, leaving the two of them alone.

Rukia couldn't look at him. "What brings you here?" Her voice sounded so dejected, so defeated and exhausted. She was obviously struggling with the entire ordeal, the evidence all around her.

"I wanted to come and see how you were doing," he explained, trying to break the ice before he had to shatter the glacier.

She took another deep breath. "You're trying to save yourself."

Naruto's face paled, chill bumps running up and down her arm. Apparently, she wielded the world's largest hammer to break the glacier herself. "N-no, I..."

"Don't lie to me, Naruto," she explained. "I know that you're worried about a thorough investigation into what happened, and that your life is on the line here. You don't have to worry though; I don't want anyone else to get hurt."

He was stunned. She seemed as though she had already given up trying to fight for her life, the execution order cutting through whatever confidence she had about the Ichigo situation. She almost sounded... suicidal. Like she had just stopped caring completely.

"I'll admit that was part of my visit, but I want you to feel better, be happier, be safe."

"What's the point? I've got a month to live, so what's the point of trying to be happy in that last bit? I'm going to sit here and contemplate the meaning of life and death and everything in between for as long as I have left."

"I just don't want this for you!" Naruto nearly shouted. "I don't want this for anyone. Can we fight the order? Is there something we can do for a formal hearing about this?"

She laughed. "Hearing? Yeah, all that would do is allow the public to come and view my humiliation. I broke a law, a law that was in place for centuries, if not longer. There's a reason it is there, and I don't want anyone or anything to get hurt because I made a mistake."

"But you shouldn't want yourself to get hurt either! If I can get the opportunity, I can try to vouch for you, try to get you some kind of extension or parole or something."

She shook her head vehemently. "My brother would not allow it. I know that I don't deserve this, and if there were a way to escape and a place to hide, I might feel differently. But it's not worth it trying to fight the system over me."

"I could hel-"

"No." He watched her in deep thought for a long time, before she finally cleared her throat. "Naruto, I promise you this. Don't worry about me and don't worry about yourself. You've done enough for me as it is, and I want to thank you very much for helping me protect him for as long as I could. I'm not planning on dragging you down with me, so stop worrying over this. I'm casually optimistic that something will change, but I know that deep down, I don't think it will happen."

* * *

Even though she knew of Ichigo and his abilities, she still was shocked to learn that there were more humans with odd abilities. Urahara had postulated that it was because of Ichigo's apparently overbearing spiritual pressure, back when he had powers of his own, that his two friends had developed supernatural abilities of their own.

Sakura had followed the talking cat named Yoruichi, never realizing that there were some animals that could speak either. Mod souls and talking animals and shinigami and hollows and, according to Naruto's memories, elemental ninjas; each layer of the supernatural she peeled back gave her a new outlook on weird.

When they finally arrived in a clearing in the woods, Sakura looked at the three teenagers apparently assembled. Chad, the impossibly tall and built Mexican Japanese student with a killer arm; Orihime, the slightly ditsy girl with a big heart, an impressive chest, and apparently the ability to create three types of shields; and one last teenager who looked familiar but she had never met him before.

"Miss Haruno, this is Uryuu Ishida, one of our classmates," Orihime introduced airily. "Uryuu, meet Sakura Haruno!"

The uptight boy dressed in a school uniform, glasses, and slightly blue-black hair had a snobby air about him, and Sakura wondered what his deal was.

"Mmm." The look on his face was not exactly a fun look, and she wondered what his problem was. He did not bow back to her after she did, and apparently this was difficult to him. What was his problem?

She still did not even know what she was doing here anymore. She should have headed back by now, but she promised to Urahara that she would not exert any spiritual energy unless it was necessary or until they had time to take the proper precautions. He basically wanted her to meet these kids first, but he didn't know why.

Yoruichi stepped forward and cleared his, interrupting Orihime begging Uryuu not to be rude. "Sakura here is the Fourth Seat of Squad Four, the medical division of the shinigami. She leads the Interdimensional Relief Squad, and she deserves your respect, Uryuu."

He rolled his eyes. "You've done nothing to deserve my respect, shinigami."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. Who was he supposed to be? "Thank you for the introduction, Yoruichi. But what exactly am I doing here?"

Before Sakura could comment further, Orihime practically jumped for joy. "Oh my, you're in the medical squad! That's so cool, Sakura! One of my powers lets me heal injuries."

Sakura smiled at her enthusiasm. "Really?" She had not heard a detailed description as to what her powers were really all about, only that they involved shields of some kind.

"Yep. How do you heal things as a shinigami? That must be neat, because all I've ever seen are shinigami cutting things with those swords of yours."

Uryuu rolled his eyes. "Don't let her fool you, Orihime. Nor you, Chad." The taller teen looked down at the two of them, not bothering to comment. "They do not do much more than cut things, no matter how they try to act all high and mighty."

They did not quite know what to say to that, but when Yoruichi the cat began to speak, Sakura wished that she could have captured the exact moment his face changed into something filled with horror.

"What? You've never seen a talking cat before? Honestly, don't be such a wimp."

Orihime piped up. "You are making kind of a fuss, Uryuu."

"Sakura did not overreact this much," explained the tall Hispanic boy. The Squad Four shinigami did not expect to hear him speak at all, his voice entirely too deep for his age.

Whatever Chad said seemed to completely straighten Uryuu up, as he turned away to hide his face and adjust his glasses. Sakura noticed the small silver cross hanging from his wrist, and her eyes widened.

"Wow, you're a Quincy," she said with astonishment, almost backing up out of reflex. Seeing a Quincy was definitely not something she had expected; they were supposed to be extinct.

"And you're a shinigami, and probably a pathetic one at that, to be in the medical division."

Immediately, Sakura's anger peaked in her mind. "What did you just say, kid? Who the hell do you think you're talking to?"

Before the argument could escalate, Yoruichi cleared his throat loudly enough that everyone had to turn. Orihime had a slightly odd expression on her face, and Chad definitely looked nervous at the prospect of Sakura and Uryuu standing across from one another.

"Settle down, you two, before you do something you regret," explained Yoruichi. The cat watched them both expectantly, and when Sakura's expression finally dipped down, the cat sat on its haunches.

"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Uryuu.

Orihime and Chad were not as attentive as Sakura had imagined that they would be, and it seemed like they had met the cat before Sakura met up with them. She figured they would have wanted answers too, but they must have known more than her.

It took several moments, but within moments, Uryuu and Sakura were both shocked beyond belief, but for different reasons.

"Ichigo is planning on going to the Soul Society?"

"And you want me to help train her? That's treason!"

"Yep! He's going to go there to try to rescue Rukia. We thought you'd want to know, so you could help him too," Orihime explained, carefree before Sakura's words really settled in. "Uh... treason?"

Sakura had no idea what the details of all this really were, but she definitely did not feel like this girl should be that excited about the plan.

"This is way too complicated," Sakura explained.

"I agree," added Uryuu, surprised slightly that he agreed with her. "What Ichigo does has nothing to do with me."

"But... Rukia," Orihime stuttered. "Her life is in danger!"

The Quincy was unimpressed. He made a small gesture toward Sakura. "Rukia doesn't mean anything more to me than this complete stranger, Orihime. Why would I involve myself in matters of the shinigami?"

There was a long moment of silence. This was all too much for these kids to handle, and that much was definitely true. Sakura knew they had no chance to argue against that, not even the Quincy would be enough of a threat to them. They'd slaughter him the first chance they got, just to ensure that all the Quincy were dead.

"Too bad. But I understand that you're only doing what you think is best, Uryuu," the brunette stated, standing up."It's completely confusing to me at this point, but I am going to keep on listening and try to learn all I can about these changes that are happening. It's a little scary to have new powers awakening inside of me, but I want to know what I can do with them." She turned and locked eyes with the shinigami near her. "That's what you're here for, right? You'll help me, won't you, Sakura?"

The pink-haired girl sighed. She hated feeling like she was on the spot. "I don't know yet, Orihime. I really don't. I need some time to think, to process."

"I understand," she said lightly, her expression crestfallen. "I'm sure that Yoruichi can teach me all that I need to know!"

Sakura's chest ached, not sure how she should feel about all of this. She could be risking a lot for someone that she barely knew. If she helped them, then she could be fighting against the system she had worked so hard for. She... she had to figure out what to do.

* * *

"Naruto, I think we've run into a problem with the spell," Momo began the moment she sat down with Naruto at the table of their favorite restaurant.

"Hmmm? Really?" Naruto asked, genuinely curious. He had already decided to keep his mind off of anything resembling executions, informants among the squads, and missing friends. The Kido and Momo were definitely something that he could focus on.

Momo smiled as she adjusted her collar, entering a long explanation about a certain word in the incantation not matching with the source array. "Without that word, we won't be able to link the two together and the spell won't even work."

"So that word doesn't line up with the Senkaimon source spell then?"

She shook her head. "No, it won't work together, but Izuru and I can't figure out another word to replace it."

Creating the source scroll of a Kido spell out of kanji is difficult, but it is usually not this difficult, from what he's heard from others. If they had had help from the Kido Corps, they could have found a substitute word that would definitely help, if not actually work.

"I just wish it wasn't so hard," he said, glad to be talking about something productive. The waiter came by and took their order, disappearing into the back room. They came to this restaurant very often, and it definitely gave him chill bumps to imagine it.

"Do you have any ideas as to what word we could use instead?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. Are there any other birds that we could use?"

She looked up, thinking. "I don't know. Izuru already asked about that, but I can't come up with anything else. It seems like 'owl' would work, but maybe crow as well."

He considered the sealing array, remembering the words scrawled in a pattern that would eventually link to the verbal incantation. "'Crow' might work, but I'm not sure if the shape of the kanji will fit and flow correctly."

They drifted into silence, Hinamori lightly drawing in the palm of her hand the correct form of both 'crow' and 'owl.' Naruto reached over her soup and took her hand, squeezing it.

"Stop obsessing, we'll figure it out. We don't have to rush this; this is the kind of discovery that could take months or even years to decipher, and then even longer to actually get Central 46 to implement it."

"Yeah," she said quietly, gripping him back. "You're right. I'm sorry, I'm just very driven with this. It's such an excellent idea and could change our entire fight against hollows if it works."

Naruto merely nodded, her words reminding her of Ichigo's plight and struggle against the Menos Grande. He regretted bringing it up with Shikamaru now, the more he thought about it. Shikamaru was a sharp guy, and if he was bored enough, the Squad Eight Third Seat would put two and two together. Shikamaru was the one who terrified him more than anything, a loose end who would know and might even tell Captain Kyoraku about his hand in Rukia's case.

"Central 46 sure does work really, really fast to execute someone who does something wrong, but they don't take the same initiative to actually change anything," Naruto said suddenly, wondering what her response would be.

Her eyes widened for a moment before she put her hands in her lap, solemnly watching. "I know. It's... sad. Upsetting."

He was not quite sure how to respond, which is silly because he's the one who even brought it up in the first place.

"How... how is your squad handling that? How is Captain Ukitake handling it?"

Naruto gulped. "Not well. Most of the squad members did not know her very well, only knew of her by her last name. But everyone that knew her is especially upset about it."

She frowned, knowing what he meant. "Do you think they will be okay with it?"

"I guess they have to be."  _But I don't, and won't._

The guilt could practically tear him apart. She seemed to notice it, and looked at him earnestly.

"Are you sure you're all right? You've seemed really distant lately, like something is bothering you. Kiyone has complained that you aren't keeping up with your paperwork-"

"So she still gossips about me, huh?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

She laughed, a hearty giggle that made his heart melt. "Yeah, I suppose she does. Some of the members of the SWA gossip like a fish, and she's one of them. Her sister Isane complains about it all the time, but she's not much better." The two of them laughed together, and he was glad for the better mood.

"Anyway, are you sure you'll be okay? I know this must be... hard on you. If you need someone to talk to about it, I promise I'll listen. I've always liked Rukia myself, so I can understand why you would be upset."

Naruto was certain that he was visibly torn, which probably worried Momo even more than she was before. He wanted to tell her, explain to her what happened with Ichigo and how he covered for her so that she could hopefully return her powers more quickly and head back to Soul Society and pretend it never happened. He wanted to explain to her how terrifying he found it that a human with borrowed powers managed to force a Menos Grande to flee through a Garganta. He wanted to ask her what he should do about it, if he should own up to his mistakes and take whatever punishment he deserved for helping them.

"Yeah, I'll be okay. I promise, if anything comes up, I'll let you know and I'll sit down and force you to listen, even when you don't want to hear it anymore." He smiled at her, hoping beyond hope that she would not press him for more.

Momo nodded curtly. "Okay. Now, let's eat and head back, I want to work some more before I go to sleep."

He gave her a sly smile. "I think I can preoccupy your time with something that would definitely not be related to work."

* * *

Sakura had to add floating, defensive fairies to the top of her list of weird things she had witnessed lately. It was stranger than a human with powers he shouldn't have, it was stranger than an armored arm being strong enough to knock down an entire wall of the warehouse, and it was definitely stranger than a talking cat directing them all how to fight.

Sakura watched as Orihime was coached by Yoruichi on accessing all three of her shields, which were apparently combinations of her six fairies. An orange healing dome that used two of her fairies; an orange defensive triangular shield that used three of her fairies; and her last fairy could surround itself a force-field and could apparently potentially cut through any material, as long as her will was strong enough.

"I'm so glad you agreed to do this, Sakura!" Orihime said excitedly. She was obviously having fun using her powers, but every time she became overly excited, the black cat would correct her with his stern voice.

"Well, I'm only doing it temporarily," she explained. "I am going to head back in five days, which is five days before you head out to the Soul Society." Sakura had already worked out the plan with Urahara to hopefully take her out of the equation for being punished. Everything else that happened would be unrelated to her as long as she remained out of the way. It was a sacrifice she was going to have to take in order to help, but she did not want to commit. In the same vein, she did not want Chad or Orihime to die just because she was being selfish and protecting them.

"That's good. Now, where do we start?" Orihime asked, her fairies buzzing about her head in their flight forms. Sakura studied her for a moment, realizing that the girl was already seemingly tired.

"We start by getting your endurance up to speed," Sakura explained almost instantly. Yoruichi gave her an appreciative look while he helped Chad control his arm on the other side of the room. "This can be something for both of you, actually."

"Sakura's right," the cat added. "We need to know, and expand, how often you can use your techniques without becoming too exhausted and then help you learn how to use them efficiency."

"Efficiency is key. We don't want you to burn out all your energy in two or three shots or punches or deflections," explained Sakura. "We need to upgrade your healing ability so that you can do it faster and use less energy in the process. And Chad, you need to work on being as fast as possible while using your arm, and keeping it up as long as possible."

For almost two hours, both Yoruichi and Sakura worked their charges to death, getting them to almost no energy left. Sakura would then work on healing them by giving them a burst of her own energy from restorative Kido, and then they would work again. It was tiring work, but by the end of the time period, they learned more about Orihime and Chad's base limits.

Yoruichi turned to Chad to focus on him, giving him exercises that could hopefully improve his overall strength and endurance. Sakura turned to Orihime to test the limits of her specific powers.

"All right, I'm going to use a low-powered Hado Kido and up the intensity, and you're going to see how long you can hold it without your shield cracking."

Orihime nodded. "Oh, I hope this works.  **Baigon! Hinagiku! Lily!**   **Santen Kesshun, I reject!** " Instantly, her three defensive fairies appeared and formed into the triangular shield made of what seemed to be orange glass, pointed directly in front of her outstretched hands.

Sakura raised a hand and counted down, before firing an incantationless Byakurai. The lightning bolt launched from her hands, exploding against the shield and shattering it instantly. The human jumped back reflexively as her shield fell to the ground in pieces, disappearing as quickly as it had been summoned.

"Again."

Another bolt of light blue energy collided against the shield, lasting for a few seconds before eventually breaking again.

No warning this time. Sakura fired the low powered Hado a third time, and the surprised Orihime threw up her arms in desperation, shouting the kotodama. The shinigami's spell collided against the shield, and to her surprise, it held.

"What do you think happened that time?" asked Sakura.

"I don't know," she replied from behind her still summoned shield. "Instinct? Wait, I'll ask them!"

Sakura wasn't going to let her, waiting for just a moment before firing another Byakurai from the tip of her fingers. Orihime's defensive wall fell apart, throwing the human back.

"It's not instinct, but concentration," explained Sakura. "You're doing really well, but you have to keep your reiatsu focused inside the shield. If I'm right, you should be able to match almost any attack if you are able to control your reiatsu enough to block the attack's output."

"Hmm, that's an idea!" Sakura smiled at her enthusiasm, and it was practically infectious. Orihime looked back and summoned her fairies again, waiting for the Kido to be fired. She skewered her face in the most hilarious expression, and Sakura found herself actually laughing. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Orihime, you're just unintentionally funny. One more time, and try to see if you can match it!"

The blue lightning bolt flew through the sky, and she absently upped the intensity from before, wanting to test the girl. The attack visibly sped up, colliding against the force field a blinding light. When she could focus again, it seemed that the shield had held but the force had still pushed her back.

"Amazing," she sighed, surprised she was catching on so fast. "Put away your shield, we're switching to offense."

"Offense? I don't want to fight you, Sakura. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I'm not going to get hurt. You're not the only one who can create a barrier." Sakura was actually not that good at barriers, and it was surprising to her how good Orihimes's defense could be. She still needed to test her sword attacks against the orange defense, in case that was some kind of fluke where swords wouldn't work on it. "Orihime, take out Zoobaki."

"Damn you, woman!" a voice suddenly said, snapping in front of her and kicking Sakura square in the nose. The shinigami recoiled, annoying and having to staunch the small nose bleed he had created. "My name is Tsubaki, dipshit. You're just as bad as the rest of them!"

Orihime groaned. "Are you okay, Sakura?"

The shinigami nodded, a slight glow of healing Kido to heal the wound very quickly. "Yeah, just get ready."

She thought the incantation in her mind, instantly creating a thin barrier made of green light, shaped like a square. It was actually the strongest barrier she knew how to make, but she did not tell Orihime that. Sakura really wanted to test the other girl's offensive powers, and as annoying as Tsubaki, apparently, was, she had yet to see him cut through anything truly impressive.

"Cut the barrier in half," Sakura ordered, stepping to the side so that she would not be in the way. "You can do it."

 **"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun, I reject!"** There was a positive burst of spiritual power from Orihime as the speeding Shun Shun Rikka turning into a ball of light, rocketing toward the shield. There was a loud crash of sound, and Tsubaki veered away from Sakura's shield just after impact. Her shield had stayed in place, much to her disappointment. Sakura's other powers had already proven to be very interesting, but her offensive powers were lacking. There was almost no visible sign that Koten Zanshun had even made a dent or a scratch in the shield.

Orihime sighed, dipping her head down with insecurity. "Well... that was... unimpressive," muttered Yoruichi from beside Sakura's vantage point.

"Try again."

Another speeding dart collided against the shield, this time visibly affecting the shield. A thin line ran all the way down it, like it had cracked exactly horizontally.

"Again!"

The attack succeeded in hitting the shield and cutting it in half, and for what it was worth, it seemed that she was happy about it. Sakura did not put up another shield, wanting to test her other powers to get her confidence back up. Chad shared a high five with her, and had to use his left arm to do it because his right was still armored up.

"Yay! I'm so glad that worked! It just took way too long!"

Sakura pulled out her sword, sliding her finger along the edge despite Orihime's protest. "This should be much easier than it was before." Sakura had already tested her healing powers several times while they were doing their endurance exercises.

 **"Ayame! Shun'o! Soten Kisshun, I reject!"**  Her two healing Shun Shun Rikka, Ayame and Shun'o, flew out and extended into a small shield over Sakura's left arm.

The sensation was very strange, but it had a distinctly different kind of feeling from medical Kido or natural healing. There was no scabbing process, it just vanished after about two minutes. During that wait, they watched as Chad worked diligently on increasing his strength by smashing crates, lifting them, and throwing them with both arms. He was doing a good job and was able to do much more than he ever could initially.

When the wound was healed completely, Sakura marveled at her. It was definitely a useful ability to have when they went to the Seireitei and encountered what could be enemies. Healing the injuries of the fallen would be key if three teenagers and a cat would be enough to defeat the entire Soul Society and rescue Rukia.

They weren't captain level by any stretch of the imagination. It was pretty much already decided in Sakura's mind that Ichigo and his friends had to get in and get out as quickly as possible. It would be a fool's errand if the most powerful were authorized to engage the teenagers.

She took another deep breath. "All right, I want you to practice calling your powers without your chants. It might be hard or impossible, I'm not sure. But if it works similarly to Kido, you may be able to call on them automatically."

Orihime walked over and deactivated her powers, returning to the hairpins. It amazed Sakura, the true nature of her powers. They had a noticeable similarity to Kido and to a shinigami's zanpakutou, and the Shun Shun Rikka were very similar in design to zanpakutou spirits. It was interesting to her, and vaguely scary. What if she was something more than just a human with powers unlocked by being near Ichigo's unbridled spiritual pressure?

"She shows promise," Yoruichi commented as Sakura stepped back to watch their progress. "They both do. I don't even think we've even touched the full extent of either of their powers."

"I don't either," Sakura agreed. "Her healing is an invaluable asset, and her shield is definitely a useful tool. I am not sure about her offensive capabilities, though."

Yoruichi nodded. "If it's anything like a zanpakutou, her offensive powers are going to be weaker without any killing intent."

"Then we'll have to give her some killing intent."

The cat's eyes widened at the implication. "How do you suppose we do that?"

"We'll break her until that's all she has left."

The other looked at the pink-haired shinigami in a completely new light. "You know what, I think I'm going to like your style."


	14. Invasion

"Attention! Red Alert! Red Alert!" The alarm klaxons sounded throughout the entire Seireitei, sending signals to every member of the Soul Society through the network of Hell Butterflies. "Intruders detected in West Rukongai! This is not a drill!" Every shinigami in the area suddenly stopped what they were doing to go to their emergency stations.

Naruto ignored the rest of the message, having heard enough the first time. His entire routine crumbled, his mind running through his duties during this kind of crisis.

Sentaro and Kiyone immediately shared a look before turning to him. "What do we do, Lieutenant Uzumaki?!"

There was too much going on, too many different things to remember. It took several moments before he replied, "Send the message to the rest of the Squad to wait for the captain's orders. As soon as he gets the word, we'll march if necessary."

The two of them bowed, heading toward the other offices to help their seated officers spread the word to the whole Squad. He knew that in emergencies like this, not every one of the thirteen squads would deploy, and they may not even be needed. But it was still necessary for them to prepare for the worst, whatever that was.

Naruto took a deep, calming breath, wishing that this day was not one of the captain's sick days. Ukitake's tuberculosis was acting up, and he had been in bed for much of the morning already. Every bit of the squad was under his orders. He hated that whatever this situation was, the captain would have to wake up against his sickness.

Naruto waited out the few minutes it took for the ailing captain to arrive, having to dodge questions from every third member of the squad.

"Is it a hollow?"

"More Blanks? Are they invading the Seireitei again?"

"Why would they alert the entire city about a small group? This is an army?"

"An army of what?"

Ukitake could not have arrived sooner, stumbling through the door to the main debriefing hall of the barracks. The entire contingent of Squad Thirteen was assembled, barring those who were stationed in the World of the Living. Thanks to the more recent deployments, the Squad was actually almost a third in number from what they could have been. Naruto wondered if that would lessen their effectiveness against whatever threat that this would entail.

The white haired captain immediately commanded silence with his presence and a tiny fluctuation of his spiritual pressure. The squad aligned immediately, and from Naruto's vantage point in front of the group, he could see they were all more confident in the captain's presence.

"I wish that whoever is causing this alert could have waited until after my medicine regimen, but I suppose this will have to do," the Captain joked. "It appears that several bodies entered the Soul Society through the Dangai from West Rukongai. The Seireitei has been alerted of their presence, but there is no reason to fear. After the successful invasion of the Blanks and the Dark Ones, our defensive precautions and responses have been exaggerated to insane levels. I suppose that it will be good that we are alert and ready, if in the case that we actually need it, but there is no reason to fret. Squad Thirteen will not be needed initially, but when and if we do, orders will be given through Lieutenant Uzumaki and Third Seats Kotetsu and Kotsubaki."

After confirming his orders, the Captain left the room to head back to his quarters, but Naruto knew that Ukitake would not be able to think about anything other than the situation until it was over. Ukitake tended to obsess and worry, and Naruto worried for him.

The blonde lieutenant had enough to worry about on his own. The Squad was under his leadership, all to himself. He had had this happen before, but with the alert sent out to everyone, it seemed that the stakes were higher. He wondered if he had more to worry about with everyone at such high alert.

* * *

As soon as the alert sounded, Sakura's entire heart plummeted in her chest. She was in the middle of dressing the wounds of someone who had been injured in the World of the Living while on patrol, but her mind was elsewhere.

Ichigo and the others had arrived. There was no other alternative. It had to be them. And she was terrified for them; an overwhelming part of her wanted them to succeed, to save Rukia from her troubles, but the logical part of her knew it would be impossible. No matter how much she and Yoruichi had trained Orihime and Chad during the five days, the two of them would be a burden to Ichigo. She knew it was true, and it hurt her heart.

Both of their power sets were impressive. Chad had a few tricks up his sleeve and Orihime had some very versatile abilities. But would it be enough? If they did not stand a chance against the bankai, would their powers even help them against a shikai? That didn't even count all the other powers like Kido or Shunpo or just regular Zanjutsu.

Some small part of her was rooting for them to change the system she worked under. But her brain wouldn't let her see that as realistic, and that terrified her. She feared those five days had been a waste of time.

* * *

If there was one thing that Chad knew, it was that this place did not seem to be anything like he had expected. The sky was cloudy but pleasant, and the building resembled the castles and shacks of feudal era Japan. He supposed it made sense that they were living in the past, because shinigami were fond of swords, but he had not expected it to be ancient looking.

Where were the people? Why was it so empty? He was lost in his own thoughts while Yoruichi explained to the others that this was the Rukongai, where human souls who died were sent to live. His mind was brought back to the cockatiel, Yuichi Shibata, whom he had befriended back in the World of the Living. He wondered briefly if the boy had found his mother after passing on.

The infrastructure on most of the area was poor and only slightly well-kept. To his immediately East, he could see the large buildings that looked very rich and almost appeared as a mirage over the horizon, and he wondered if that was where they needed to go.

Apparently, Ichigo must have followed his train of thought. Yoruichi shouted back after him as Ichigo ran toward the nicer buildings, despite the cat's protests.

"Wait, you idiot! You can't run up the gate like that! You'll be killed!"

As if on cue, huge stone walls dropped from the sky, shaking the earth as they fell into place and kicking up dust that clouded the entire area. They were impossibly heavy, heavy enough to nearly unsettle the buildings closest to them as the ground rumbled beneath them. Chad covered his face with his arms, bracing himself as one more bit about the spiritual world shocked him.

There was now a very tall wall surrounding the entire city, as far as they eyes could see. Chad had no idea how far that was, but it was far enough that the wall disappeared over the horizon before even showing any curvature. It had to be several miles around, at the least. The only distinguishing feature was the huge gate that Ichigo was only yards away from, coughing from the dust that must have hit him harder than anyone else.

"Well, well," a large, thundering voice boomed overhead. "It's been a long time since anyone tried to pass through the spirit gates without a travel permit." The dust finally cleared to reveal the surprising figure of a giant of a man standing in front of the gate. The beard covered his face, his entire left arm wrapped in an armored plate; Chad was reminded of his own armored arm from the sight. He wore the standard shihakusho of the shinigami, but the left side of his chest was uncovered. Compared to Ichigo, the man looked to be almost fifty feet tall. "And I don't get many guests these days, so welcome to you, little man."

The impossibly large gate guardian, who could not have been a normal human-based soul, pulled the silver axe from his back and slammed it on the ground, kicking up another dust cloud and shooting dirt and rocks into Ichigo's face.

The orange-haired shinigami stood in front of the opponent, not sure of anything, as the giant guardian held the strangely shaped axe in one hand and seemingly laughed at Ichigo, mocking him.

"Whenever you are ready, give it all that you've got, and good luck!"

Chad had no idea what to think about this opponent, but he knew he had to help. Just like when they were in middle school, he had to help Ichigo face this man together.

"That man's a leviathan," Uryuu muttered somberly, in awe of his size and relative strength. "What kind of creature do you suppose he is? He's way too big to be a human being."

"He's known simply as Jidanbo," explained Yoruichi. Chad wondered if there was a shinigami squad for animals, if that was how this cat could know so much. He supposed that if animals had a soul, they could easily go to the Soul Society, right? "He was chosen from among the very best warriors the Soul Society has. His task is to guard the Hakuto Gate, one of four entrances that make up the spirit gate."

"He's the guard? It looks like to get through that gate, we have to choice but to defeat him," explained Uryuu.

The cat sighed. "Yes, but that will not be an easy task, I'm afraid. In the three hundred years that Jidanbo has served as guardian of this post, countless invaders have tried, but not a single one has ever broken through the Hakuto Gate. Jidanbo has become a legend of power and strength."

Chad was amazed that he may find more warriors of Jidanbo's size inside that wall, after they pushed through inside. He wondered if size was an indicator of strength, and if Jidanbo was stuck as a mere guardian, what size could the captains inside even be?

"How in the world are we supposed to even defeat someone like that?" asked Uryuu, who was undoubtedly already preparing several strategies in his mind based on Yoruichi's warnings. Chad had a few of his own prepared as well.

"That's where your intelligence and creativity come in," explained the cat. "First thing we need to do is have a meeting to decide on a strategy. Ichigo, let's start with-" The cat cried out in exasperation.

Chad signaled to Orihime and they both rushed toward Ichigo to help him, knowing that they had to handle this together. Chad was not going to settle for any less, no matter the objection. He may not have been extremely close to Rukia or to anyone else here, but he was not about to let this guard stop him from saving an innocent life.

The giant watched their approach, and the strategic part of Chad's brain wished there was some kind of cover they could launch a better attack from. But the area in front of the gate was clear and Jidanbo would be able to see from any area in front of him. The only way they could defeat him would be through a head on assault.

The giant guardian raised his axe, angrily sliding it across the ground and cutting into the stone with his impressive strength. Huge barriers of rock covered their approach, and Chad realized that they had just gotten what they wished.

"He's trying to block us from helping!" Orihime cried out, realizing his motives and defending her face from the falling stone and rock.

"You two need some work on your manners! What are you, country bumpkins or something?!" Jidanbo cried out to both Orihime and Chad. "We're civilized in this city. Here are the rules. Rule number one: always wash your hands before you sit down to eat. Rule number two: don't eat food that has fallen on the floor. Rule number three: battles in this city are always fought one on one!"

Chad's eyes widened with surprise, his hands dropping suddenly. That rule did not make any sense and would definitely not help them at all. Jidanbo had a very antiquated sense of battling and war, and it shocked him that he could be so callous. Chad was worried for Ichigo now, who had apparently been the one that Jidanbo had chosen to fight as his opponent.

"The kid with the spiky orange hair was the first to approach and challenge me, so he shall be my first opponent!" Jidanbo declared. "Then I'll come back to deal with you two! This won't take long, I promise!"

As the giant turned to deal with Ichigo, Orihime sighed loudly. Chad had already made up his mind. "Orihime, I'm going to wait for the right opportunity and then punch a big hole through this wall. As soon as its open, you aim Tsubaki at the big guy through the opening."

Orihime nodded, but the giant had other plans. "What was that? Don't tell me you two are still plotting schemes over there!"

The girl beside him was amused. "Even his ears are powerful!" Chad grunted in agreement.

"Orihime! Chad! Are you there?"

The two of them moved closer to the wall of stone blocking them. "Ichigo! Yes, we're here!" Orihime clarified. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah! I'm still alive and kicking!"

"We're coming to help you! Just wait right there!" The girl shouted, determined.

"Yeah, well here's the thing, Orihime. I actually want you and Chad to just stay put and let me handle this by myself!"

Chad tuned everyone out, and as Orihime and Uryuu argued their stance, he watched the rock wall and thought very hard for a moment about why Jidanbo would want to fight Ichigo one on one. He supposed that he might have seen Ichigo as a threat, and because he's never been breached before, Chad figured that Jidanbo wanted to eliminate the strongest opponent first so that his pride could be held.

Chad shook his head lightly, realizing and making his decision. He was going to help Ichigo win this fight, if it was last thing he ever did. For the old days where he and Ichigo were targeted for being different and had to fight bullies together.

Chad pulled on the inner speed he had found while sparring against Jinta and Ururu and even Ichigo himself those last few days, after Sakura had returned through the Senkaimon. A flash of green light emitted from his feet as he leapt through the air, pushing on the ground with his soul to help him speed up, jumping over the wall clearly. The giant's back was turned and he had obviously not heard or expected the attack to come.

Chad's arm powered up, the black and red liquid-like metal surrounding it and giving him strength. He felt the surge of pride in his skin and in his powers, and he was glad he had the ability to help others now.

Immediately, he forced as much strength as he could into his right fist, slamming into the back of Jidanbo's neck and sending him flying into the ground several yards away, dust surrounding him. Smoke billowed from the top of his arm, the steam from his attack leaving him as he fell to the ground and rolled out of the way to recover.

"What the hell, Chad!? I thought I was going to fight him!" Ichigo shouted, but there was a hint of awe on his face and in his voice.

"I'm not going to let you fight him alone," Chad commented, slowing down his breathing to calm his body. He could only keep his arm activated for about half an hour nonstop, so if they fought for a significant amount of time, he would have to be sure to use all that he had and defeat him before then.

"You deceitful punks!" Jidanbo said, standing up and rubbing the blood away from his nose. The giant had hit the ground head first, nearly crashing into the spirit gate he guarded so well. "I'll kill you all where you stand!" He brandished his axe and readied a swing, and both Chad and Ichigo prepared to dodge it.

"Wait, Jidanbo!" Yoruichi declared from the top of the rock wall. "Technically, they did not break your agreement. Chad can be your opponent instead of Ichigo!"

The guardian seemed genuinely confused as he watched Uryuu, Orihime, and Yoruichi climb over the wall. Chad wondered if this defense was even going to work, the loophole sounding like something that lawyers would use in a lawsuit.

"Fine," he said suddenly, but he didn't sound too happy about it. "I suppose that the one with the nasty punch can fight me instead. But do not interfere again!"

Without warning, the guardian swung his axe with another scream. The sound was deafening as Chad pushed off the ground and rushed to his left, avoiding the axe's onslaught. He had a few seconds before his eyes widened, a second axe appearing on his left.

Chad twisted suddenly, his right arm stuck out just enough so that he stopped the axe at the last second, pushing back against Jidanbo's monstrous strength with his own. The human inwardly cursed, wishing that this was not the worst angle he could possibly be in. His powerless left arm could not be used to stop that axe, so he had to twist his arm so that it was nearly covering half his face.

The giant pulled away, both axes ready to use and looking very formidable. Chad could hardly believe that he had actually managed to stop his second axe so easily, merely fluctuating his spiritual pressure enough to meet and exceed Jidanbo's.

Had he really become this strong, or was Jidanbo really that weak?

"I have to hand it to you, little one," the guardian began. "I did not expect to see that much strength inside your small body. But it won't be enough to stop my axes! There's no way you'll survive my second thrust!"

He immediately swung his arms together, aiming them in a cross pattern, and Chad reacted with enough time to push off the ground in a huge leap, green light trailing him as he rushed high above the ground. The axes crossed harmlessly underneath him, but Jidanbo countered quickly, flipping up his arm.

Chad spun in mid-jump, stopping the weapon with his powered forearm and the swing's force rocketed him helplessly into the air. He was doing much better than he would have thought initially, surprising himself.

He tried to control his fall, almost fifty yards away from Jidanbo and the others, who were watching with just as much amazement as Chad himself. He silently thanked Sakura as he righted himself and landed on both feet, sliding and rolling painfully until he had carved a stretch in the stone.

Jidanbo ran toward him, moving faster than the Mexican had anticipated, causing the ground to shake with each footfall. Another swing of the mighty axe, and Chad punched upward in the same motion. His fist collided with the side of the axe's blade as it fell toward him. There was a powerful snapping sound as the weapon broke in two at the handle, the metal piece flying to Chad's left and skittering to a stop against the stone.

Jidanbo cried out in anger. "What? That's impossible! My axe! You damned fool! You'll pay for that!" Another swing of his weapon, and Chad rushed forward, running into the gap between the guardian's body and the axe in his left hand. The steel collided with the ground, and in the same instant, Chad jumped up and slammed his fist in Jidanbo's chest.

The moment he hit the ground, Chad began to charge up his arm with power. The red and black armor began to shake with effort, blue energy swirling in the piece jutting out from his right shoulder, and Chad punched forward.  **"Brazo Derecha del Gigante! El Directo!"**

In a stunning blast of power, the glowing blue wave of pure energy fired from his fist and collided with Jidanbo the moment he had stood up, throwing him down again and charring his body with heat and burns. Chad could feel the temperature himself. The azure bolt of power hit the spiritual gate and dissipated, and all the air within two hundred yards was covered in smoke. A crater had been drawn with the power of his punch, cutting into the earth.

Chad took a knee, his arm falling limply beside him and smoke billowing from his body. Jidanbo was down, his second axe lying on the side, barely conscious from the effort. He looked over to see that Orihime had defended them from the after effects with her orange shield, and it broke as she rushed toward them.

"Chad? How did you...?" asked Ichigo, shocked by the power he had displayed as he helped Chad stand up, walking him toward the gate. Yoruichi followed behind them, and Uryuu and Orihime were standing over Jidanbo.

"I... trained... really hard," Chad muttered, the exhaustion of what just happened hitting him in the face.

"Incredible," Yoruichi exclaimed. "Truly remarkable, Chad. I did not know you had it in you."

"Oh my god, you're so great, Chad!" Orihime shouted out, nearly wanting to run over and hug him for celebration. "If we're all this strong, this will all be so easy!"

The giant laughed suddenly, raising up from his place near the gate, despite the burn marks on his chest from Chad's attack. "Easy? You have no idea what it's like in there, kids. The enemies you will encounter inside those walls are mountains and towers above me in both skill and strength."

Chad had to wonder again if that was in size, but based on what he knew of shinigami, he assumed they were normal sized usually.

"I don't know about all you, but based on what I can feel of your spiritual pressures, you have a long road ahead of you." Jidanbo rubbed the back of his neck with his axe handle, before looking at Chad and Ichigo. "I have to ask. Why did you jump in to fight me?"

"Because I value my friends and I want to help," explained Chad immediately. "I owe it to them to fight for them if I can, and I saw the opportunity. If Ichigo or Uryuu had fought you, they would have probably defeated you faster than me. I had something to prove."

The giant laughed heartily. "Well, you've proved it for me. But we will have to see if that can continue into the Seireitei." He looked at the broken axe handle in his right hand. "Although, in all of that, you destroyed my beautiful baby." A tear legitimately ran down his cheek, surprising all of them. "Why did you have to destroy my axe?"

"I... couldn't let you keep swinging them," Chad muttered, worried that the guy was literally crying over the axe. "I'm sorry, but you got to keep one of them, right?"

Jidanbo sniffled, looking up. "True. I... guess you aren't all bad." He threw up his hand. "All right, let's open the gate for you."

Orihime clapped lightly. "Oh wow! You're going to help us, Jidanbo?"

"Yes, my sweet," the giant said smoothly, smiling with his huge teeth. Chad smirked at the thought of succeeding and gaining them passage, because he managed to fight him and win. "It has been three hundred years since I began to guard this gate, and never once has someone been able to defeat me and pass this way. I thought the day would never come, but you are the first man to defeat me. Therefore, I, Jidanbo, hereby grant you passage into the Hakuto Gate."

A moment of pride passed, and Uryuu stepped forward. "You'll grant us all passage?"

"Yes," he bellowed. "I was soundly defeated by a member of your group, and although I normally would challenge your leader, I don't think a cat would put up much of a fight."

"What!?" yelled Ichigo. "That damned cat is not our leader!"

"Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about!" agreed Uryuu.

The girl laughed and Chad grinned a lopsided grin. "You know, if we had a leader, it probably would be Yoruichi." The cat was enjoying the praise, but Ichigo and Uryuu continued to argue.

Jidanbo eventually cut them off as he prepared to open the gate. "I don't know what you are determined to pass through this gate, but I promise that those you will meet on the other side are all very strong. You will have to be ready." And with that warning repeated, he gathered up his strength and began to lift the impossibly heavy gate with his monstrous strength.

The humans watched in amazement as the opening to the Seireitei continued to widen, but something was ominously wrong within moments. Ichigo moved through the gate unknowingly, and Yoruichi only barely managed to recognize the problem fast enough.

A silver-haired figure wearing a long, billowing black shihakusho and a white haori appeared, a dagger-length zanpakutou at his side.

"Hm. Who is that?" Ichigo asked from the guardian's side.

"That... is none other than the captain of Squad Three, Gin Ichimaru!" The captain smirked from the introduction.

In the moments that passed, Chad realized several things. One: Jidanbo was terrified. Two: Gin Ichimaru was terrifying. Three: the captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads were terrifyingly powerful. Four: Gin Ichimaru was walking toward them.

"Ah. Not good." He walked calmly forward, and as Jidanbo began to shake from the sight of the man, something glinted in the sunlight as it shot past the guardian, cutting a deep gash into his arm and forcing Jidanbo to his knees. No one had even seen it coming, and Chad was glad for the moment that the giant had managed to stay up long enough to keep the doorway open. So much blood splattered on the ground that if someone had been standing under his forearm, they could have gotten a shower.

"Jidanbo! No!" Ichigo shouted, and everyone gasped. Orihime looked terrified and Uryuu was outraged.

Gin was holding his sword's hilt in a ready stance, preparing to attack apparently. "Unacceptable," he muttered. "Being a guardian of the gate doesn't mean you're supposed to open the gate."

* * *

The moment that Naruto heard the news that Captain Gin Ichimaru met the intruders and expelled them, he was shocked. Jidanbo had been a personal friend, so when he heard that it had been at the Hakuto Gate, it had been like a blast from the past. He remembered all those times of he, Toshiro, and Hinamori going to visit them.

No one had been deployed outside of the spirit gate to deal with the intruders, which did not really make any sense to Naruto. Surely they could send the Stealth Force and take them out in the middle of the night, couldn't they?

The entire day, Naruto had had to field questions about the intruders and their identities, and the lieutenant had no idea who they were. Ichimaru had sent a detailed report but had not reported if he heard any names or recognized any faces. Jidanbo likely knew who they were, but he had helped them briefly so no one was really trusting his word at the moment. Whoever these intruders were, they were not likely to be able to get in any other way. Squads Three, Five, Nine, and Ten had all been deployed to guard each of the four gates from the outside in case this was a more broad threat than they had intended.

That was literally all that he knew. Naruto worried for Momo, whose squad was dealing with the northern gate that was closest to their squad barracks. She was likely leading the contingency because Naruto couldn't imagine Captain Aizen going out of the office to deal with a threat on his own. Although, that captain did surprise him sometimes.

The threat of the intruders seemed to die down the next day, and he wanted to take a trip to the World of the Living and to the Elemental Nations to see how Gamakichi was doing and to explain that he may have figured out something during his training, just because he could. But with the threat going on, he decided it was best not to. Even if he could slip away from his squad duties, he would feel guilty for hours and it would just be pointless for that special type of training.

His thoughts rested on Rukia again, and she had been moved to the repentance cell now to await execution. The great white tower above the Squad One barracks was connected to Sokyoku Hill, where she would be executed with the giant zanpakutou that supposedly had all the power of one million zanpakutou. Naruto supposed that was an exaggeration, but in all his time here, he had never seen it used.

She was a capital offender, but he had helped her. He was too, and he wasn't taking credit for it. He had not slept in far too long, the guilt weighing him down. Every few minutes, the Kyuubi would bark something really rude and annoying, just for kicks, about his issues.

Who could these intruders be? He almost wanted to leave to go and find them, learn who or what they were. But Gin had obviously not been talking about their appearance or names or anything like that. How he managed to get away with that, he didn't know.

"Yeah, orange spiky hair," explained a voice in a dead whisper. Naruto's head shot up from his desk as a lower squad member spread the gossip to Kiyone. "Fought Captain Ichimaru himself, for about a minute before he was shot out of the gate."

Naruto paled.

Ichigo Kurosaki was here to save Rukia Kuchiki.

* * *

The moment that she could slip out, she did. The moonlight was shining and the events of the day were still firmly placed in her mind. She ran her hands through her hair, stepping out of the Shiba Clan grounds. She wondered if Kukkaku would have a problem with her wandering around, but she wanted to see more of the afterlife and what would await her someday.

The Shibas were hidden in a district called Hokutan, an area very near the Hakuto Gate that they had tried to pass through just earlier that day and had been refused passage by Gin Ichimaru. Orihime still remembered the sight of Ichigo trying to clash swords with a captain and getting blasted outside by the captain's shikai, just before the gate fell.

It was frightening to think that there were thirteen men and women of his caliber waiting for them inside, and if they ever had to clash with another of them, Orihime had enough right to be terrified.

Her training with Sakura and Yoruichi had taught her valuable lessons about how to use her powers and how to have right mindset about fighting and battle, but she still struggled with their philosophy that the enemy was the enemy and that they should do all in their power to kill them before the enemy killed you.

Sakura was more soft-hearted, teaching her the correct ways to evade attacks and strike when the moment was near, as well as imposing upon her ways of healing and defense that would help her ensure that her friends stayed safe. She felt like they tried to push her supportive side rather than her direct combat side, and that upset her more than anything.

She could fight if she had the opportunity! She could protect Ichigo and Chad and Uryuu and Ganju and Yoruichi. And if that took killing someone before they could kill the other, then so be it.

She took a deep breath, walking through the forest outside and heading toward the main street. It was nearing dawn, thankfully, and they were supposed to leave very soon. Ichigo had gone to bed after finally learning how to use the Reishuukaku Core effectively, creating an energy sphere that could be used to protect them while in cannon ball mode. Chad and Uryuu had sparred yesterday in hand-to-hand combat, and Uryuu had won with a little bit of skill trumping strength. Orihime had showed Uryuu then how to really use hand to hand and ended up knocking him flat on his back, which had thoroughly impressed Kukkaku and Ganju. She wondered if Tatsuki would be impressed with her karate as well?

They were almost ready, but she wanted to take a moment to walk and just see the moments just before dawn. See what things were like in the towns around here. When she saw the lights of the village ahead, she smiled at the possibilities.

The town's inhabitants were just starting to awaken, but it was still dark in the empty streets. Everything was silent and dreary, and she could hear no signs of life. Occasionally she saw an open window with the lights on, but the town was still asleep.

Orihime really wanted to know why there were so many rough houses and why the Rukongai looked... dirty. When she had imagined heaven and the afterlife before now, she imagined order and mansions and gold and huge palm trees and beaches and oceans and cotton candy and ice cream and paradise.

But this was almost the opposite of what she would expect. Why wasn't it glamorous and fantastic and everything that it should be? She remembered something that Urahara had said about the cycle of transmigration of souls, and that shinigami kept that balance. So... if souls were leaving Soul Society, were they heading to hell or back to the World of the Living? She understood that souls could die, but it seemed to be so different from what she imagined.

She guessed that it was like reincarnation. Maybe when a soul in the Soul Society dies, they go to live again as a tree or an ape or a worm or something. But why isn't the Soul Society more... affluent? Pleasant, even? From Yoruichi's explanation, this was the more wealthy area of Rukongai, so she didn't want to know what the other areas were like.

Orihime turned a corner while reflecting her thoughts and immediately heard a scream coming from a house to her left. It was a run-down house on a seemingly wealthy street, so she wondered if it was haunted or something. The post outside read "Tsubasa."

Either way, she mustered up the courage and headed right for the door rather quickly, hearing another scream and several shouts followed by later. It sounded like some kind of fight or struggle, and she was going to save whomever it was.

She burst through the house, her hands held to her hairpins in preparation. It was clear now that the sound was coming from the basement, and she kept her senses up around her hoping that no one would sneak up on her.

The human crept down the stairs, not expecting to find what she did. Downstairs, there were three grown men holding bludgeoning objects, and a girl tied up on an old ratty mattress. Immediately, Orihime's heart started beating fast, realizing that the girl was wounded and hurt and violated, and she gasped.

One of them men turned to her, not realizing that someone was standing there. Orihime prepared her powers after hearing his voice.

"Well, look who we have here! It's our lucky day!"

Orihime's world collapsed she really considered what could happen, what was happening to that girl. If she didn't do something, that girl may die. Orihime did not want that, she just wanted all the hurting to end.

Sakura's words embedded inside her mind.  _"The enemy is the enemy. Your main job is support, but that requires for someone to be there for you to support. If you ever find yourself alone, never hesitate. The enemy is the enemy; separate yourself from your feelings and act. Never react."_

She felt the tingling at the back of her neck, and without warning, three of her Shun Shun Rikka appeared behind her, shimmering in their shield form and blocking the baseball bat's swing at her head. The act startled her and the brunette found herself nearly tripping down the stairs. The man continued down the stairs when her concentration faltered, her shield breaking and fading away.

_"Act. Never react."_

Every feeling of hatred for what could happen and what was happening to that other girl bubbled up inside her.  **"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun, I reject!"**

Her offensive power appeared and immediately zipped about the room in his flight mode, and she guided him with her subconscious mind. Her anger at them and their actions guided Tsubaki, and the vengeful spirit cut into them like a knife through butter.

The moment she realized that the Shun Shun Rikka had instinctually maimed or killed each of three men before they could even say anything to defend themselves, her fear bubbled back up to the surface.

"No..."

"No no no."

Her Rikka resealed themselves in her hairpins, but she was not concentrating on them. She hurried over to the girl, pulling at the rope binding her hands to her back. When she couldn't get it, she called on Tsubaki again and the orange cutting tool chopped through the bindings, but something was wrong.

The girl cried out in pain, clutching her hand. Tsubaki had cut through her finger, chopping off an entire piece. Orihime cursed herself and her lack of confidence in what was going on and what was happening.

"Sorry..." the spirit muttered, returning to her.

 **"Shun'o! Ayame! Soten Kisshun, I reject!"** The two healing fairies appeared and brought out their healing field, and the little blonde girl recoiled at the sight of them.

"It's okay, you're safe, I promise! They are going to heal you, and they'll heal your finger too! I'm sorry for hurting you and I'm sorry they hurt you!"

Tears were streaming down her face and she was spitting words at the other girl, studdering as her powers tried to wrap around the entire little girl's body, hopefully to heal whatever was wrong. The blonde soul was enveloped in a dome of orange energy, and she was still terrified and horrified.

"You... you killed Daichi and the others," the girl muttered, a mix of horror and admiration in her tone. Orihime gulped and looked around the room, wishing immediately that she hadn't.

Not a single one of the other three men was alive. It had only taken a split second, and the men had not been able to defend themselves against Tsubaki's attack. She was not sure if she should be glad or guilty or still angry at them.

It was a painstakingly long twenty minutes when she finally called off her healing dome and escorted the girl from the house, telling her ton hurry home. Orihime was shell shocked, terrified of what had just happened. At what they had almost done to her. At what she had done to them.

Orihime turned around and headed back to the basement of the decrepit house. The moment the kotodama left her lips, she regretted having the ability to care. Despite the fact that she was going to heal them, she was never going to let anyone take advantage of this situation again. She had to tell Yoruichi and the others, but she wanted to keep it quiet for now.

In under a couple of hours, they would be cannonballed through the membrane around the Seireitei, and their invasion would begin. And she could only hope that she could take her feelings about this event and keep them bottled up. Orihime could not afford to let them get in the way of their mission, not for Chad or Uryuu or Yoruichi or Rukia. And not for Ichigo.


	15. Breakthrough

_It's way too late at night for this..._  Shikamaru did not like the fact that he was being sent out to the Rukongai to investigate a situation that seemed way below his pay grade. He conceded, eventually, realizing that he was far too bored to care not to go. Which sounded like such an oxymoron to him, but he shoved that away. Duty was a friend to him, in odd and unexpected ways.

The Third Seat of Squad Eight had just finished interrogating the suspect, the suspect that would now be tried for his crimes. Daichi Tsubasa was barely conscious, having just woken up a mere twenty minutes before. Shikamaru had handled the interrogation, realizing that the young souls had attempted to rape one girl and had successfully raped another. What was interesting to Shikamaru, however, was the girl they couldn't find.

Her reiatsu signature had been all over the scene of the crime, and for good reason. Apparently, she had defended herself from the rapists and then nearly killed them. And then healed them like nothing had happened at all. The story sounded absolutely ludicrous to everyone involved, but Shikamaru did not throw away any potential data points. Especially not after they confirmed it with one of the victims, the first girl who had been saved by the other.

Why would she have attacked and then healed them? The question did not make any sense and he wished that he had the answers. He wondered if this girl was just a naturally compassionate person, with some kind of weird ability that did not make any sense. Neither shinigami nor hollows could do this, so what the hell was going on?

Shikamaru ran through all the strange things that had happened lately. Naruto's weird question asking about a human being turned into a shinigami, the very odd situation of a small group trying to slip through Jidanbo's gate, and now this. Could they all be connected? Did Naruto know what was happening, or was he jumping to conclusions?

If Naruto knew more than he let on, was that reason to suspect him to be involved in this? Whatever this was anyway. Shikamaru wondered why the more active members of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads had not gone after the Ryoka instead of ignoring them after they were shoved out of the wall. This seemed like something that Soifon and her division would love to do, but maybe they  _were_ doing that after all; he had no place to know if they were or weren't, really, so long as it did not interfere with Squad Eight. Why were these Ryoka still alive and who were they in the first place?

Shikamaru spent the next five minutes ensuring that everything was in order, the wee hours of the dawn quickly approaching. He was very tired, more so than normal due to the hour of the night, and he hated the fact that he wasn't in bed right then. But as he was heading back to the Seireitei, something happened.

A flash of energy, energy that did not seem to match anything he had ever encountered personally before, hit on the edge of his senses. If he focused hard enough, he could feel the faint presence of something or someone that could be related to the investigation he had just finished. But the first energy was getting closer, and he had to respond carefully.

* * *

The moment that the boy took a large, deep breath, he adjusted his glasses. Uryu tried to call on the spirit ribbons of those around him, needing to make sure that no one was around, hoping that he could find a place to train during the last few moments. Ichigo was still working hard to try to control his reiatsu overflow, and Uryu was getting so pissed trying to force him to learn it that he had to leave and get some air, and maybe some training.

Yoruichi's warning that he only had about an hour left was on his mind, at least to find the farthest, secluded place away from where they were. Orihime had walked in that morning, explaining that she had gone on a walk, despite everyone saying that she should have told them. Uryu wondered if it was even worth trying to master the glove more, now that he was in a land filled with reishi, due to the small amount of time left. But still, he marched on, too inwardly pissed to return to deal with Ichigo's bullshit for a significant amount of time.

The spirit ribbons were mostly white around him, mostly white and small and nothing very substantial about him. If he expanded it hard enough, he imagined that he would see lots of red ribbons begin to appear, assuming he could sense over the sekkisekki walls.

Uryu suddenly stopped instinctively, realizing that there was a shinigami heading right for him. The Quincy knew that this could be a very, very bad thing if something were to go wrong, so he quickly rummaged through the pockets attached to his belt, realizing that he had something he could use if there were to be a fight.

Moments later, someone flash-stepped into existence in front of him. It was a shinigami with soft brown hair tied up a top knot on the top of his head, one whose power was mostly concealed. The black-cloaked individual's weapon had a black hilt and guard, and Uryu tried not to notice the intense opposing outfit to his own. He wondered if he could sew something similar, maybe to craft his own target for practice at home.

"No way," the man stated, groaning at the appearance of Uryu. "Figures that the Quincy would have survived after all this time. Just my damn luck. I come here to investigate a crime, and I find a Ryoka..."

The black-haired human snapped his fingers audibly, and the shinigami flinched defensively. "At least you're rational. Unlike some of the other shinigami that I've come across, you seem to have the forethought to be wary of my abilities."

"Well, the Captain has always tried to tell us to never go into a battle with an opponent expecting the same type of fight as the one before," explained Shikamaru.

"Is that what this is?" asked Uryu, wondering. "Is this a battle? Do you want to fight me, shinigami? Because I assure you that it will not end well for you."

There was a palpable moment where Uryu could tell that the shinigami was actually considering his request, as bizarre as that was.

"Truth be told, I'd like to avoid a fight if I can help it. Although, I wonder if you would maybe give some information as to what is going on and who you guys are."

 _Is this guy serious?_ The Quincy thought, amazed at his attitude. "You really think I would voluntarily give up information about my allies?"

The opponent curiously rubbed the back of his neck, wondering about what to do. "I suppose you're right, but it was worth a shot. I'm questioning whether or not it's a good thing to try to take the information from you, but I don't know." Another pause and the shinigami continued. "Besides, aren't you allied with a shinigami? That orange-headed kid who nearly committed suicide trying to fight against Captain Ichimaru."

 _This could be bad,_  the Quincy considered silently. Had they listened to the cat, they'd probably be in much better shape to get inside and get out. "I'm taking my feelings out of the equation when it comes to Ichigo Kurosaki, temporarily," explained Uryu. He thought very hard about the situation. A shinigami of unknown rank or power suddenly appeared in front of him, apparently attracted by his unusual reiatsu. Uryu thought the shinigami seemed genuinely disinterested in a fight, but he knew he couldn't trust the man's word on that.

"Well, do you have a person in your group with the ability to heal? A girl with red hair?" Uryu tried to hide his shock; how the hell would they know about Orihime? The Quincy thought that Seireitei would really only have a good idea about Ichigo and maybe Chad.

"Based on your reaction, that's a yes," explained Shikamaru, more thinking aloud than anything. "I'm not going to explain that situation to you, but just know that I don't blame her for what she did. And for how she reacted."

"What the hell are you talking about? How do you know who Orihime is?" Uryu demanded.

The shinigami crouched down, in deep thought again. "I don't know who she is, but I suppose you just revealed her name to me, so I guess I should say thank you. Come to think of it, you confirmed Ichigo's name as well, and we weren't one hundred percent sure of that either."

Uryu considered the barrier he had placed around the area, a self moving barrier that would prevent any major reiatsu from leaking out and showing everyone where he was. He supposed he had nothing stopping him from attacking right now, and he had some steam to put off.

He clicked the glove into action, and his bow instantly solidified into place, extending outward from each side of his wrist several feet. Uryu enjoyed the instant, subconscious feeling of power, reishi gathering into his body to augment his internal strength. The shinigami's expression was filled with shock before determination, reaching for his blade.

"Take this, shinigami!" Uryu launched a potent arrow of blue light, derived from the reishi in the air around him. Shikamaru's draw wasn't fast enough to block it, but the brunette managed to jump backwards with added Shunpo, colliding with the pyramidal barrier. The shinigami screamed in pain as the Ginto shocked him, preventing his escape. The blue arrow missed just by an inch, impaling itself in the barrier just to the left of the shinigami's face, before dissipating.

"I am not going to toy with you, shinigami. I can't have my secrets spreading around, if we are to have this fight," explained Uryu, gesturing to the barrier around them both, now that it was visible and bathing them in a light blue light, like sunlight traveling through a slightly translucent blue curtain. "You're not going to leave this space alive."

"Well, it's not too late to stop fighting, you know," explained Shikamaru, his sword now clasped between his hands. "You're not under any obligation to continue. Leave now, and I'll show you mercy."

Another three arrows, and the shinigami was sliding away from them like a delicate dancer, his movements more precise than Uryu would have thought. The Quincy did not stop, angry at the idea that a shinigami would tell him to give up.

"Yeah, like the mercy you shinigami showed my people," explained Uryu, firing once more. "There's just no way that I'm going to let you get away with that!"

Shikamaru jumped out of the way of that shot, before rapidly spinning in the air and dodging the others. As he landed again, part of his shihakusho was caught by the tail end of an arrow and his pants ripped apart, fabric falling to the ground. Uryu jumped to the right and fired another bolt of light, trying very hard to balance his own body's movements and his subtle absorption of the area around him.

Shikamaru threw up his sword and deflected the bolt, throwing it to the left where it clattered against a tree and then dissipated. His back was still smoking from where he had hit the apparently powerful barrier, now taking the extra time to ensure he was not going to hit the perimeter once more.

"I didn't personally have anything to do with the war that killed your people. How old do you think I am?"

Uryu scoffed. "War? Is that what they call it?" He considered laughing at the injustice of Shikamaru's statement. "It was nothing more than an extermination."

The Quincy fired several more shots, wondering why the shinigami was not getting serious. His opponent continued to flash in and out of sight, dodging the projectiles like they were nothing. Why would he not fight back?

"I honestly do not care about the war or the extermination, or whatever you want to call it," explained Shikamaru. "The past is the past, and it's entirely irrelevant."

Uryu cursed and created a large arrow, before dividing it mid-air into several smaller shots that peppered the ground around a now disappeared Shikamaru. "It's not irrelevant, you coward. My people, my entire culture, are gone." Another volley was fired at the shinigami, but it did nothing.

"I know a little bit about Quincy techniques," said Shikamaru, rolling out of the way of an arrow aimed right at his head. "If I remember correctly, this barrier is one of the techniques called Ginto, correct? And our Kido is similar to a Ginto, right?"

Uryu did not comment, but thought it interesting that he said that Kido was similar to Ginto, and not that Ginto was similar to Kido.

"Your Ginto are primarily based on reishi-infused items rather than incantations and scrolls," thought Shikamaru aloud. "I'll bet you won't even be able to use that barrier again, will you? Or at least, not the same barrier. It only makes sense that you would carry a limited amount of these items."

Uryu cursed, realizing that this man had figured out a lot about Ginto in a short amount of time. And he wondered if the shinigami would know how to diffuse his barrier.

"I know all this stuff, but I never bothered to learn the practical use of fighting against these techniques," explained Shikamaru, visibly bored and exasperated that he had not taken the extra time to learn that bit of information. "I never thought I would have to, so I didn't bother paying that much attention."

Uryu laughed arrogantly. "Well, without that knowledge, I doubt you can break through this perimeter barrier. You lack the power to do that."

Uryu had been analyzing this man's reiatsu fluctuations and it seemed to him that the shinigami would not have the right kind of power to break it. He wasn't going to underestimate his opponent, however, because a logical mind can be a powerful tool.

"I suppose you have me beat, to be honest," suggested Shikamaru. "I might could figure out a way to get out or defeat you, but I don't see the point really."

"What?!" asked the Quincy. "I am your enemy! You are  _my_ enemy!" He expelled another volley of six arrows, all in various directions from various angles, flipping through the tight perimeter with his Hirenkyaku and circling his opponent.

The Third Seat of Squad Eight flashed through the area as well, using Shunpo to dodge the arrows impaling themselves all around them. He then quickly shot forward, hoping to physically impose him. Uryu flashed out of sight, firing another arrow at the shinigami's back.

A flick of his wrist was enough to deflect the arrow with his blade, and Uryu did not notice it fast enough. The arrow flashed through the air and collided against the highest point of the pyramidal barrier. Within seconds, the barrier cracked apart and fell to the ground, and Uryu's Ginto token cracked into nonexistence.

"Gotcha!" Shikamaru said, almost ready to prepare the Bakudo that could end this right then. "Not a bad barrier, kid. I've seen better."

The Quincy was about to fire so many arrows that it would cover the entire ground with blue light, but something came barreling into the back of his spiritual senses.

"Uryu!" a voice shouted, and the Quincy groaned. The orange-haired shinigami appeared, hand already over his shoulder, ready to fight. "What's going on?"

But before anyone could possibly do anything, Shikamaru flashed away as quickly as he had arrived, and Uryu could no longer sense the man's presence.

"What just happened, Uryu?" Ichigo yelled, preparing to go after him. "Who was that!?"

"There's no point," explained the Quincy, dispelling his bow. "The shinigami is already gone, his power hidden from us."

Ichigo made some kind of grasping motion with his eyes closed, as though trying to call upon the spirit ribbons again, but Uryu laughed. "It's no use, Kurosaki. If I can't find him, none of us can. Not even the damned cat. He'll be over the wall in minutes." The Quincy tried to stave off questions, but his mind was still buzzing with confusion about what actually happened and what any of this meant. He supposed that the surprise of being a Quincy was gone; they would all be looking for one now. And for whatever reason, they knew who Orihime was now and that could prove dangerous. Uryu cursed, wondering what it would take to get out of this mess.

"Well we'll be over the wall soon too," explained Ichigo. "I figured out the control method. Ganju was actually good for something for once. Come on, everyone's waiting."

* * *

Rukia supposed that being moved to the Repentance Cell was more efficient, but she hated the fact that she never had any visitors. Hanataro had been her only real connection to the outside world for days now, so the moment they moved her closer to Sokyoku Hill, she felt more and more isolated. The young seated officer of Squad Four was unaware of her new location or was not allowed to visit her any longer.

It was coming closer and closer to the moment that she would lose her life. Or was it her death? She honestly was not sure if she was born in the Soul Society or the World of the Living, because all she had ever known was this. If she had had birth parents and grew up with birth parents, she'd probably know that she was born and not transmigrated. But this was literally all she knew, having grown up here for a little more than a century.

She wondered how Naruto felt about knowing where he came from and knowing what his human life was like, or at least knowing bits and pieces of it. Rukia remembered how often Naruto had been contacted those first few months for a brain analysis from Captain Kurotsuchi, and again and again, the lieutenant smartly refused to be experimented on. Naruto had, in some ways, become more removed from the Soul Society, spending a lot of his leisure time alone and not with friends. If Rukia were to suddenly gain her memories back, would she become closed off too?

The petite shinigami sighed, realizing that it was not going to do her any good to reflect on that. The moment would soon come that she would become totally isolated from everyone and everything, utterly dead and alone. Maybe there would be reincarnation, maybe not. It was unclear whether or not it actually happened when a shinigami or a soul was executed in any capacity, but this would be with the Sokyoku. The great blade with the power of a million zanpakutou would probably wipe her soul from the fabric of existence and she would never ever be again.

No matter how much she tried to tell herself to think in the moment, she remembered what she knew of her life. Thinking of her time with Renji before the Academy. Thinking of her time with Byakuya, as brief and unemotional as those times were. Thinking of her time serving in Squad Thirteen, with Kaien and Miyako and Naruto and Ukitake. Thinking of her time with Ichigo, fighting hollows, saving parakeets, and discovering the secret of his mother's death.

Each of those times had been a huge part of the person that she was today. And although her death was approaching, the memories of those events would carry her through to the end. The joys and the constant struggles, the curious boxes of juice, the tiny and animated stuffed animals. In some ways, she was content when she thought of the last few months, but she wondered if she would do it again if she had the chance to repeat the past.

The sun hit the thin, tall window in such a way that she could barely see any sky and there was hardly any light in her cell. She had a tiny bit of an overlooking view of the city, and she knew they were all carrying on their business without her. The friends she made would stop for a few moments and recollect their time with her, but then they too would move on after it was all over.

She stared at the clouds, watching the way they drifted and the wind spun them around the sky. They were pushed along, never able to make their own decisions and subject to the whims of the system of air currents around it. Clouds had no autonomy over their own actions.

When the sky began to brighten, she realized that something was not quite right. "Why is the sky glowing?"

She remembered Renji's words.  _"A shinigami with orange colored hair."_  Ichigo Kurosaki was coming to save her, and she really could not collect her thoughts about that.

"What the hell are you doing, Ichigo?"

* * *

Every single person in the Soul Society stared at the tiny ball of light fixed in one position above the West spirit gate. It was glowing with bright intensity, flaming as it collided against the sekkisekki membrane around the city. Whatever it was, it wouldn't break through and it would dissipate upon impact.

Tenten was itching for this to be connected to the intruders from two days ago. Were they attempting to breach the barrier somehow? She was reminded of the Blanks from a few years back, and they had managed to power through it with sheer numbers and powerful spiritual pressure. But from all the intel that Squad Eleven had received, Tenten thought there were five intruders, one of them an animal.

Five intruders having enough power to break through the barrier? It was incredible to imagine. Were they using some kind of special tool, or were they actually capable of breaking through with pure power alone?

Some tiny part of her wanted to know if it were possible that they were that strong, so that she could get a good fight in. Squad Eleven would be the first on the scene, and she was ready for a good showdown. There  _had_ to be more people than what Gin had originally suggested.

Tenten wondered if it was a good thing that she had nearly as much bloodlust as the Captain. Probably not, as that guy was almost always coming back from some form of conflict, usually unharmed. She didn't have his vast energy pools though, nor the right concentration of reiatsu to block nearly any attack. She was a versatile fighter, probably the most versatile fighter in all of her division, and that was what made her special.

The girl ran through the maze of roadways towards her barracks, opting to stay on the ground instead of running along the rooftops. She was too far away from the site where she currently was, and her barracks were nearly as far away from where the barrier was cracking.

She felt a familiar presence in the back of her mind and turned suddenly, almost immediately bumping into Samui of Squad Seven. The blond girl adjusted herself and her uniform, before preparing to run again.

"Are you believing this? Someone's piercing through the shield!" Samui said, inwardly wondering if she could release her shikai and hit the spot from here with her lightning. Probably not, but it would be totally worth it if she managed.

The sky was still glowing with intensity as the object pushed through the sekkisekki shield like it was a finger going through thin rubber, rubber that would eventually crack open.

"I know," Tenten muttered, still amazed. "Remember the Blanks? This isn't like that at all, this is one small group!"

Samui hesitated. "Do we really know that it's them, the same people who beat Jidanbou?"

"Who else could it be? There's no way there could be two things going on at once, it's too coincidental."

The blond considered it a moment. "I need to report to Captain Komamura."

Tenten nodded, as Samui disappeared into the maze behind her, heading in toward Squad Seven. She took a deep breath and exhaled, before heading toward her own barracks once more, her eyes still watching the sky above.

* * *

Naruto was surprised that there were any trees left in the western forest, not far from the White Way Gate. The canopy obscured the clouds, only letting bits and pieces of sunlight into the area. The lieutenant was exhausted, breathing in and out as he waged a landscape-changing battle with his own zanpakutou. Kusaritane's red hair and white, billowing kimono melted into the earth, looking almost like roots.

 **"Do you need a moment to take a breath?"**  asked the zanpakutou, genuinely caring for his wellbeing. Bankai training had to be difficult on him.

Naruto shook his head, and without warning, four chained daggers melted from the branches of the trees around him. The shinigami jumped into the air and spun, his sealed blade knocking the daggers away with little trouble.

This was the third straight month of actively working on Bankai, and it took far too long to actually begin manifesting his zanpakutou spirit outside of his inner world. He had not made learning Bankai a priority, but whenever he had free time, Naruto pulled Kusaritane into the physical world to train with her. He had been asking her for Bankai training for literally four years, but she never agreed until now.

The forest was where he chose to fight her, because it reminded him of the Forest of Death. He felt closer to his parents, or at least, that small part of his parents that had been sealed into his soul. It also gave her an advantage, because of the way her powers worked.

Naruto landed on a tree branch and had to immediately jump to the next, the branches taking on a life of their own as the wooden chains extended from them like they were alive. He remembered she had tried that trick before, impaling the bottom of his foot with a dagger. Naruto had tried so many strategies to try to learn it from her, to try to subjugate her to his will, but it was taking far too much time and he couldn't figure out the trick.

A quick blast from a Shakkaho blocked the twin daggers extending at him from two oak trees, and he ducked underneath the smoke and leaped off of the bark of a tree trunk, flipping in mid-air and heading straight for his zanpakutou.

The redheaded woman lifted her hand, the trees bending to her will. Daggers melted out of the trees, out of the roots, out of the leaves and created a solid net-like wall of twisting chain links made of wood. Chains shot for him, but he willed himself to spin through the air, and then slashed diagonally from left to right.

His blade cut through the chains, wood falling to the ground as he continued toward her, but she was gone.

"So we're going to keep playing this game, huh?"

Kusaritane rose out of the roots of a maple tree nearby, almost as though raising from a pond. Naruto had a sudden flashback to a face he was sure he would never forget, the face of a half-white, half-black skinned man. He couldn't remember the name.

" **Yep, we'll keep playing until you learn from your mistakes,"**  explained the zanpakutou. Leaves rustled above, and Naruto twisted on the ball of his feet, jumping backwards and throwing up his blade. The oncoming dagger from above clashed against the sword with enough force to cause sparks to fly, throwing him back hard enough that he was sprawling on the ground several yards away.

Three chains appeared again, ready to wrap around him like vines around his ankles, his wrists, and his waist. He upped his spiritual pressure, hoping to block them or prevent them from attaching. It held them off long enough for him to gather his sword and hack them to pieces with two quick strokes.

The third reacted differently, going for his wrist and holding him down. Naruto poured power into his fingertips.  **"Byakurai!"**  The blue-lightning bolt was powerful enough to pierce through the chain, and within seconds, he was fifteen yards away, on his feet, ready to go again.

He held the blade with his right hand, covering a wound on his chest with his left. "Come and get me."

Kusaritane smirked and was nearly ready to send another group of chains to tangle him and immobilize him, but something happened. A flash of light not too far from where they were, breaking through the tree line.

"What could that be?"

Naruto flashed through the trees until he was standing on the top of the tallest tree, overlooking the city enclosing the forest. High above him and to the northwest was a tiny ball of light striking what looked to be the barrier. Light rippled across its invisible surface, and he was reminded of the last time that someone pierced the barrier. The Blanks.

The Kyuubi growled inwardly at the memories, an intense feeling of hatred spreading to Naruto and to the potential for Ganryu to be back all at the same time.

"Oh come on, Ganryu was going to manipulate you for evil ends," complained Naruto. "Aren't you better off with me?"

The fox growled again from inside his inner world, behind his forested cage.  **Don't try to get inside my head, kid.**

He watched for several moments before something changed, something that he couldn't quite make out. The ball vanished inside the barrier, the rippling effect gone with all the force of a sonic boom. Naruto had to brace himself as the shockwave nearly knocked him out of the tree.

Several smaller figures were floating impossibly outside of the barrier for a few seconds, before they were suddenly scattered in four different directions, streaking across the sky in golden arcs of light.

Naruto had a sinking feeling that all hell was about to break loose. A tiny familiar spiritual pressure entered his senses, and he knew.

Ichigo Kurosaki was in the Seireitei.

Naruto gestured to Kusaritane, who returned to his inner world without another second, and then hurried toward the barracks. He was silently hoping that he did not run into any of the Ryoka, until he was given the order to do so, because he wasn't really sure where he fell in this whole debacle.

* * *

The moment the girl found her pillow, she was thankful. A shower had done very well for her nerves, and she needed some rest to prepare for her upcoming tournament. She wanted to check her phone to see if Orihime had contacted her, but she knew it was empty.

Some part of her knew that Orihime was not staying with her relatives. Ichigo was gone as well, and Tatsuki wanted to know where they were. Why they had apparently disappeared. She tried to ignore the ghost floating outside her room, but it was difficult.

Were they involved in something dangerous? Something supernatural? She wanted to know what they were doing, and how she could help, but it was nothing. She was nothing. The martial artist knew that somewhere out there, Ichigo and the others were fighting for something important to them. She wished that she could help them, to fight alongside them. But all she could do was observe the supernatural.

Tatsuki turned over to switch out her alarm clock so she could try to wake up in a few hours to train again, but something stuck out to her. She turned on her desk lamp and gasped.

Sitting on her desk was a tiny ruby-encrusted ring, a simple golden band. Upon closer inspection, it was etched with tiny markings similar to kanji but crafted in a way that did not make out any real words. She wondered if she would need to look at it with a magnifying glass to get the meaning.

Underneath that ring was a small slip of paper with a note written in English. She picked up the ring and slid it onto her finger, before reading it.

_**"Tatsuki Arisawa, I have always thought it strange that the others overlooked you. Enjoy your newfound independence to decide for yourself your path. You'll know what to do with it."** _

It was not signed or dated or written with any significance. The handwriting was impeccable, each stroke nearly too perfect. She had no idea who could have brought this to her or what it was. Tatsuki had half a mind to try to turn it in somewhere or give it away, but the other part of her made her hesitate.

Why did she have the sinking feeling that this was related to the supernatural? Related to Ichigo and Orihime? Who could have given this to her? What it could be used for?

"Damn. I have no idea what to do with it," she muttered, sitting up in her bed to stare at it. It was alluring, very alluring. Some part of her enjoyed seeing it on her finger, enjoyed seeing the metal glint in the light. The markings almost seemed to shine with such intensity that she wondered if it was alive.

She looked over to the mirror to see her reflection, and sighed in relief. "Okay, so at least I'm not Frodo." She still had no idea what this was, but she decided she would wait until she woke up.

Tatsuki fell asleep with the ring on her finger, unaware of the possibilities that would be opened for her.

* * *

_**And I'll end it there, for now. Sorry for the lack of updates, but I hope that these elements will make up for it. You're not likely to see Tatsuki again for a while, but I wanted to bring her into the story because I think she's an interesting character that I wish had been involved from the start of canon Bleach. There's a lot of potential for her to be badass and I hope to capture at least some of that potential here!** _

_**Nothing more to say about the chapter, but I hope the majority of you are enjoying everything so far. If you want to check out my profile, I've been trying to respond to some criticism, which I think is definitely helping me formulate the fic and ensure that certain things are kept or shown. I appreciate constructive criticism. I know the fic has some problems, but I have wanted to do something different with this one. I think the major problem people have is that Naruto is not a God in this one, and that's what most people who read these kinds of crossovers expect.** _

_**Review if you want, I'd love to hear from you. Let me know what I did or didn't do correctly! I really do want to know so I can hopefully correct problems that people have with it. So let me know! :D** _


	16. Division into Chaos

The moment that Naruto arrived at the barracks, he was bombarded with questions from literally every single person on staff in the office and some not. Sentaro and Kiyone, as well as the Fifth Seat, were trying to quell the raucous crowd, but it was not working.

"Who are these invaders?"

"Should we prepare for battle?"

"Is this going to be like the Blanks? I don't want to die!"

"The orange-haired kid is back? How is this possible?"

Naruto was getting more annoyed with each speaker, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose before expelling his spiritual pressure. Those closest to him were visibly shaking, and the rest began to quiet immediately.

"As Captain Ukitake explained when the intruders first arrived in the Rukongai," began Naruto, "all orders will be given through me and our co-Third Seats." He was flustered and not sure what to do, and Sentaro and Kiyone looked to him for leadership.

This was the first crisis that he had to respond as a leader, and that terrified him. Naruto knew that the captain was resting from illness, and that when the time came, he would be alerted to the situation. He was upset that he even went to go train, realizing that just because some time had passed, the Ryoka were still a problem and now they found a way inside.

He cursed inwardly, wondering about the gates and their positioning. Based on where the Ryoka pierced through the shield and disappeared, he knew that they would all still be relatively close to the Western side. Now that the gates were bypassed, in a sense, the four squads that had been stationed to guard them would be abandoned for the barracks and Squads Seven and Eleven would be the first on the scene to attack them.

It was all part of a grander plan to up security, to have multiple squads react to combat situations instead of sending all of Squad Eleven at the enemies. For as few intruders as Ichigo and his friends, it amazed Naruto the lengths of which they would all go to stop them.

The lieutenant considered his position. He wondered if he supported Ichigo and his quest to save Rukia. Naruto certainly did not want Rukia to die, and he certainly thought that the system that caused her to be lined up for execution was wrong. But what did he do in this situation? Did he respond with full military might and allow Squad Thirteen to join the battlefield as well? Or did he hang back for a little while longer so that Ichigo and the others could have a fighting chance?

He huffed. He was forced into making decisions against some friends and in support of others. He had nearly died at the hands of those who were trying to sacrifice everything for the greater good. Would that greater good include killing Rukia to uphold the system in place, as well as executing Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends? What would it realistically take to change that system? Would it be worth it? Would we have copycats who would see her as an example, and then give away their powers to humans whenever they can? Or would Rukia's execution act as a threat so that no human would ever be granted shinigami powers?

"Your orders have not changed, but you should prepare to fight nonetheless," he said after a few seconds of thought. "We are to await further instruction on what to do or how to react, until such a time that it is necessary to act. Is everyone clear?"

There were several confused faces, some not agreeing with him. The Fifth Seat looked at him like he was crazy. "There are intruders in the Seireitei! A small group, yes, but the Dark Ones were a small group as well! We will regret standing idly by if one person dies in this conflict!"

Naruto gave him a look, wondering what Kaien would say. "Yes. But my orders are firm. We are to wait here until further notice. Does everyone understand?"

No one questioned him again, but it was clear that there were several people who disagreed with him. He left the room as soon as it was safe, as soon as he was sure that everything was under control again.

The lieutenant found solace in his personal quarters, and it took him several minutes to calm down. He did not like having to be the bad guy, but he also didn't want to risk someone dying because he sent troops into battle. He did not want one of his squad members to die, and he did not want one of the Ryoka to die.

He was literally straddling the fence of neutrality, and it was on his shoulders what was best for the squad.

Naruto called for his Hell Butterfly. He needed to own up to Momo about what has been going on, and he felt like he needed to stay in the barracks to do it. He knew how to take the message and protect it with Kido so that no one would understand it completely but her. It was time to own up to the truth and she needed to know.

* * *

The moment that Chad shook off the fall, he cursed and tried to stand. Sand was covered in every single nook and cranny of his body, but he was sure that it would go away soon enough. The tall teen coughed excessively, trying to get the leftover dust out of his throat. He took a deep breath and then looked around, realizing that he was with Ganju. No one else was there.

"Hey! Chad! Are you all right?" the man asked loudly, far too loudly for this kind of mission.

Chad answered with a nod, standing up and trying to shake off the particles of sand. Ganju and Chad stepped onto the pavement and looked around, realizing they were standing in the middle of a street surrounded by walls. The Mexican teen realized that it was very similar to a maze, and that was probably a strategy for invaders. Based on how the outer wall of sekkisekki reacted to Ichigo approaching the gateway, Chad wondered if the Seireitei's streets always looked like a maze, or if it was some kind of strategy.

"Woohoo! What luck!" called a voice from behind him. Chad looked with his spiritual senses first, feeling two bodies with impressive reiatsu behind him and Ganju.

Chad turned to size them up. There were two male shinigami, both dressed in the standard shihakusho. One was bald and had interesting red markings around his eyes, and the other was flamboyantly dressed with some kind of extensions on his eyebrows and eyelashes. The two enemies jumped down from the top of the wall and landed in front of the sand pit that Ganju had created with his odd magic.

"Can you believe this? First we skip out our boring guard duty, and then these two fall right into our hands!" The bald shinigami explained, and Chad wished he had enough control over his senses to feel out the most powerful target. He had Yoruichi's warning in mind, terrified that one of them would be a captain. "Lucky, lucky, lucky! Today is my lucky day!" That guy, who held his sheathed blade braced on the back of his neck, twisted it around to point at them. "However, you on the other hand, are most certainly not lucky."

Chad did not make a sound, curious and scared of who would make the first move.

* * *

Ichigo pulled himself from the pond, wondering if anyone was close by. He was still dripping, the water clinging awkwardly to his shihakusho. He rewrapped his sword, which he had used to awkwardly vault himself against a roof into the pond to break his fall.

Hearing voices, he did not budge, feeling spiritual pressures all around him. He had no way of deciphering them, all a mass of sensations in his head. Their spirit ribbons were colored in one red mass surrounding his own, and he could not figure out how to single out one specific ribbon.

"Get him!" someone yelled, and to his right, he saw several shinigami approaching him. They traveled in a large crowd, and Ichigo remembered something that Urahara had explained to him.

_"Most shinigami are not particularly strong. You're having trouble deciphering energy patterns, Ichigo, so maybe you need to look for clues elsewhere. Most shinigami who are worth a damn in a fight travel or respond to situations alone, and if you see a crowd of shinigami, you might be good to fight all of them. If you can tell that they have a cohesive leader, however, amongst their group, that leader is most likely the most powerful one."_

The human was certain, now, that the crowd did not have a singular leader. They all moved as a disjointed mass of individual parts, true anarchy and no structure at all.

The human leaped high into the air, avoiding the first few slashes of various sizes, ranges, and strengths. He landed quickly behind one of them, slashing into the group of reckless individuals and bringing down three of them with one horizontal swing.

He threw up a foot quickly, smashing into the next attacker's hand and causing him to drop his katana. Ichigo shoved with all his might, throwing that man into another three and the wall behind him.

Ichigo continued making quick work of these opponents, a bit bored that not a single one of them had been a challenge. The human was beginning to wonder if Jidanbo had been lying about how much stronger the people inside the city were, because Chad had definitely had more of a struggle against the giant than any of these guys were posing for him. As strong as Chad was, there's no way any of these creeps could pose a threat to him, and that made Ichigo feel much better about his friends' safety.

He blocked a strike with his zanpakutou, pressed into the attacker with his body as leverage, and then slashed downward. The man now had a large diagonal cut along his chest, and Ichigo had a momentary flinch of guilt. That moment quickly ended when another enemy managed to nick at his elbow.

"Oh, one of you actually hit me," he taunted, turned, and then swung Zangetsu vertically. The enemy katana was flung through the air and the other man fell, perhaps to his death. "I was not sure if any of you could manage it, really."

"Arrogance!"

Ichigo threw up a quick guarding stance, only just barely managing to stop the enemy's attack.

The blonde girl had moved with lightning fast precision, but he wondered why she had seemed slower than Mr. Hat and Clogs.

"Figures that I'm on my way for a debriefing, and I run into the guy that managed to block Ichimaru's sword. And then he has the nerve to be a total dickhead about it."

Ichigo smirked, remembering the stunt he had pulled where he stopped the silver-haired captain from killing him with some kind of extending attack. "You were impressed then, huh?"

The girl with the impressive chest shook her head, holding her blade with one hand against his. The other hand dangled to the side, and it was such an awkward stance that Ichigo wondered if he could exploit it. "I was not impressed at all. More dumbfounded, really, that someone would be stupid enough to get into a confrontation with one of the strongest captains in all of the Soul Society."

Ichigo grimaced and pushed back against her sword, knocking her back onto her unarmed side and pushing her closer to the wall. With one tiny move, her other hand needled at the space in his ribs under one of his sword arms. The human lurched in pain, causing enough hesitation for her to launch an offensive again.

She attacked with her katana, sliding it along the length of Ichigo's oversized zanpakutou, and then knocked it away. She twisted in the air and hit against his blade three times, stopping all of Ichigo's attempted recoveries, and pushing him backward again and again.

Her right arm was a flurry of strikes and stabs and lunges, never giving Ichigo more than two inches. He was reminded of a fencing championship he had once watched on television, based on the style.

"Wow, you don't let up, do you?" asked Ichigo, very physically amazed at her strength and endurance. Every few seconds, one of her strikes would be punctuated by a pulse of her spiritual pressure and Ichigo had to fight really hard not to end up on his knees from the pressure.

"As the Third Seat of Squad Seven, Samui, I can't possibly let up to deal with someone like you," she explained, ending each word with a strike to the tip of his blade.

Ichigo countered, pulling out of her range and then swinging his longer sword at her mid-drift. She watched the move with interest and leaped into the air, landing just after the horizontal swing and taking another jab at the human.

He pulled away fast enough that it was just a grazing cut to his chest, and the orange-haired fighter threw up his sword to parry once more.

Strike after strike, blow after blow, the two swordsmen were not gaining or losing any ground with one another. Samui had the clear advantage, and Ichigo could not afford to not take her skill seriously for any reason. She made a diagonal strike for his head, and he had to block that with his hand, which was immediately cut.

"Not skilled with your reiatsu yet, huh?" asked Samui. "Too bad. That could have been your advantage."

Ichigo did not notice in time, before she pushed against him with her free arm and then knocked the larger blade out of his hand with her own sword. It skittered across the stones several yards away, and Samui smirked.

With two good cuts to the arm and to the face, Ichigo had blood freely flowing down his cheek and his shoulder. It all happened fast enough that he could not respond, not without his zanpakutou in his hand.

He frantically crawled along the ground, trying to get to it, but she cut him off with another cut to the shoulder, blocking his way.

Ichigo turned around, trying to get up and get around her, but she cut him off with a kick to the head that left him and his whole world spinning. His nose was broken and his temple felt swollen, but he quickly powered through it and tried once more.

"Interesting. You humans like to grovel on the ground, don't you?" She leaned over, staring impassively at his face from inches away, and Ichigo suddenly had an idea.

In one quick motion, the human boy pulled an Orihime out of his head, slamming into her chin with a headbutt that would make the redheaded girl smile. He leapt to his feet, ignoring the blood flowing freely from his right arm and grabbed his blade.

"My name is Ichigo Kurosaki, and I grovel for no one!"

* * *

Orihime landed carefully, her shield dispelling. Slowing her descent had taken a lot of her energy, and she had to be thankful that she did not seem to be anywhere near anyone else. No one had managed to stay with her after the whirlpool separated her, and she was terrified that she would never find anyone of her friends again.

Her instincts told her to hide, so she quickly found a spot inside an abandoned marketplace storehouse. She took to hiding her spiritual presence, hoping that she could obscure it enough that no enemies around her could find her easily.

The young girl tried not to look around with dark, empty room with any fear. It was difficult, because she was visibly terrified. She was remembering what had happened to her, about what Daichi Tsubasa had done to her, and all of this scared her more than anything in the world.

What could Orihime do? She knew that she had to keep her mind off of that experience, but how could she forget it? It was such a horrible memory that there was no way she could possibly wipe that event from her mind.

Orihime sat in silence before a familiar voice rang out to her. She opened her eyes, wiping away the tears she did not even realize were falling, and smiled. Her six fairy spirits surrounded her, flying above her with varying expressions and intensities. Shun'o, Ayame, and Lily were all trying to comfort her with their eyes, and Hinagiku and Baigon were smiling brightly. Tsubaki was not looking at her and had his arms crossed.

 _"Orihime, why are you so sad?"_  asked Shun'o.  _"Those men cannot hurt you now."_

The wielder of the Shun Shun Rikka sat in solemn silence as the others tried to comfort her in their own way. "I know they can't hurt me now, but I... I did not want to hurt them."

 _"Hurt them?"_  asked Tsubaki, flying over to her.  _"Hurt them?! Why in one thousand hells would you be worried about hurting them?"_

 _"Tsubaki, ease off,"_ Shun'o urged, sitting atop her left shoulder and grinning.  _"Orihime, you have no reason to feel guilty for what you did. You even healed them all afterward! There's nothing to be ashamed of!"_ The other Rikka nodded in agreement, even Tsubaki.

 _"Woman, if you actually think I'm going to allow you to sulk in your own pity about you defending yourself against them, then you're on your own,"_  said Tsubaki simply.  _"Get up and get moving. You're not going to help anyone sitting in here all alone."_

 _"Tsubaki's right! Rukia is waiting somewhere in the Soul Society for you! You can play a huge role in rescuing her, you just have to try!"_ Hinagiku offered energetically, smiling around his eye-patch.

Orihime was glad for their passion, but she was not sure that she could actually do anything worthwhile. The other Rikka could almost feel her uncertainty. "I just don't feel strong enough to make a difference."

 _"You're strong,"_  Baigon said, reassuringly.

 _"Exactly!"_  Shun'o agreed.  _"You trained for a long time with Sakura, and she helped you grow all of your abilities! Each one will be useful in this invasion! Each of our shields will help you defend yourself and your friends!"_

"But without my friends here, what good can I do? I'll get captured like before," she said, gulping from the memory of what happened.

 _"I won't let you be harmed ever again, but I can't do anything unless you're willing to help yourself!"_  Tsubaki exclaimed.  _"Get the will to fight, and you will be able to fight! It's that simple!"_

Ayame undid her hood and stared at Orihime.  _"We... are connected to your emotions. We feel what you feel, and if you feel strongly, we do too."_  That was the most she had ever heard Ayame speak.

 _"That's right, Ayame! We're your power, Orihime, and if you feel confident and strong, you'll be confident and strong!"_ Shun'o said passionately, his hand gestures making his point. The other Rikka were feeling more and more anxious and ready for a fight, but Orihime was not sure if she was feeling it yet. The mood was definitely affecting them, but they had to try to be upbeat to help her.

"Thank you. Honestly, thank you all so much," she said, trying to fight the urge to cry again. "I... I don't think I can be useful in a fight, but maybe if I find one of the others, I can support them in all kinds of ways!"

Tsubaki did not seem impressed, but the others were happy to hear it.  _"Yes, you can! You know you can, you just have to be willing to want it!"_  Shun'o declared matter-of-factly.

 _"Don't settle just to be_ willing _to want it,"_  Tsubaki said, right in her face.  _"You have to_ actually _want it. You have to want to be strong enough to fight for yourself. The rest will fall right into place."_

She sat in silence, and they sat with her, all sitting atop her lap or her shoulders. Tsubaki refused, floating around her head. She must have sat there for three or four minutes, reflecting on their impassioned remarks.

Were they right to feel the way they did? Was it right for her to have attacked those men? Was it right for her to have healed those men? Should they have been killed so that they could not hurt someone ever again? Or should they live to see another day and hope that they are brought to justice?

She sighed, realizing there was an interesting connection to Rukia's situation. Rukia was in trouble for giving Ichigo her powers in order to save his family. It was for the greater good for Ichigo to have saved his sisters and his father! But Rukia was being punished and executed for breaking a law, even if it was for good reasons. Orihime wondered if this was similar to breaking a speed limit in a car, in order to drive someone to the hospital who was about to die from injuries or have a baby. If it saved a life, wasn't breaking the rules a good thing?

Orihime knew that attacking those men, with enough force to physically kill them, was not right. Even if they were about to hurt her and were hurting another girl. So she healed them. But why did she feel guilty? How could she be sure that they would not get the justice they deserved? Surely the shinigami had some tiny role in the justice system of the Rukongai?

Would she be executed for attacking them, in a hypothetical situation? If they were hurting her, would she have enough reason to avoid execution if she were to kill them? Or would she be killed regardless? She protected another girl with her actions, but would that matter to the Seireitei?

She was defending herself and she healed them afterward. But why did she still feel guilty?

* * *

Uryu tried to calm himself down, as he was usually very level-headed. Seeing several shinigami walk past you, a large enough crowd that he wasn't confident that he could take them all out without breaking a sweat, was definitely not a good sight.

He was by no means worried, that much he knew. Or at least, that was what he told himself. But he knew that after fighting that shinigami earlier, he needed to be sure and confident that he could handle himself and that he would not underestimate them.

There were no spirit ribbons in any comparison to the shinigami from earlier around him, but there were far too many weaker ribbons. He did continually analyze the spiritual pressures around him, especially those familiar to him, and several of his friends were already fighting.

Ganju and Chad were fighting near each other, so he felt oddly confident that they would handle themselves and could help each other if need be. Ichigo was fighting someone of comparable strength to the shinigami from before, but Uryu had to admit that Ichigo's reiatsu was much more potent than hers. Yoruichi was nowhere to be found, and Orihime was completely on her own. And that scared him.

She was not ready for this. Not ready for any of this. It did not matter how much that Sakura trained her, she was not going to be very oriented for combat. She could save herself and shield herself, but without someone there to attack for her, how could she ever defeat an opponent?

Uryu was not sure what he was here to do, but he supposed that he needed to get moving. But where could he go? Would it be a good idea to meet back up together, or would it be a better idea to stay separate and attack from all fronts? Did the whirlpool actually give them an advantage, dividing them so that they could be tactical? Or would they be stronger together?

* * *

Yoruichi watched in silence as Orihime communed with her Rikka. She was appalled and outraged at what she found out, but she needed to know how Orihime dealt with it. She needed to know if the girl could handle the guilt. Could handle the invasion. Could handle her enemies.

Of course, it made sense now why the cannonball broke up so quickly. Yoruichi had not been certain who it had been, but she feared it had been Orihime. Her emotional state had effected the whirlpool and caused it to split up much more quickly than it would have normally. She had every right to feel conflicted and angry and upset after she had almost been raped.

Yoruichi supposed that it was a leftover tendency from her time with the Onmitsukido. To watch and observe until the right moment. She wanted to see if Orihime was worth coming to the Soul Society, and to make sure that she was sidelined in any other upcoming conflicts. Sakura had trained her well. Her abilities were closer to a support system, but with no one to support, could she support herself?

The cat thought about it, wondering how she could make sure that the men who attacked her received justice. She wondered if it would be easy to contact one of her informants, and then make sure that that message was carried along to whomever was in charge of the investigation into those bastards' crimes. She could do that much for Orihime.

Yoruichi watched from the window, silently, as Orihime finally picked herself up and returned her spirits to her pins. She fixed her hair and began heading toward the outside. The cat jumped away, crawling up to the roof and keeping her reiatsu hidden. She was going to stay silent and watch over Orihime, in the event that she needed her.

The redheaded girl hurried through the streets, guided by the light of the early rising sun, and hoped that no one was watching. Yoruichi stalked her as a cat, wondering if she should have stopped the girl and helped her deal with the grief of almost being raped. This could be a growing experience for her, and Yoruichi already felt like Orihime was learning to deal with it. In her own way, Yoruichi hoped that the girl would use the anger and the hatred and the guilt toward her attackers as a survival tool, but was that in her nature?

The moment that Orihime called forth her shield, Yoruichi was surprised. The glowing triangular apparatus turned so that it looked like a platform in front of her, and the girl stepped aboard like it was a flying carpet from one of those old human tales. The cat was suddenly aware of how bad this idea could be, and within seconds, Orihime was flying high in the sky.

While it was an ingenious move, it would not fool anyone. They would know that an orange thing floating in the sky in broad daylight was definitely not a good thing. And she was way too high in the air now for Yoruichi to reach her with a warning.

"Damn it," the cat muttered, hurrying after her and keeping watch. Yoruichi felt someone's spiritual pressure rise, someone far away, and Orihime might not see it coming.

 **"Spread your wings, Tsunzakigarasu!"**  Instantly, a barrage of shuriken rocketed right for her, and Yoruichi cursed again under her breath.

To the cat's complete surprise, the girl's shield morphed its shape at the last second and took the attack, blocking all of the oncoming shuriken. That shinigami's shikai fell harmlessly, most of the spinning stars in pieces. The red-headed girl was visibly shaken by the idea of an opponent, and Yoruichi decided to sit back and watch, and interject at the right time if need be. The girl seemed confident, and Yoruichi had not expected the shield to react as it did.

It might have been a dumb decision, but Orihime needed to show Yoruichi if she had changed into more of a fighter. If she had changed into a more dependable, confident combatant. Fighting wasn't everything, but being active was, and the cat did not want the girl to ever be in danger without some type of ability to fight back.

* * *

The moment that Ikkaku struck against his arm with his sword, and then clobbered him in the side with the sheath, Chad knew he was going to have to do something different. This was different from any kind of sword fighting he had ever seen, different from anything he had ever watched Ichigo and Urahara produce. What was this? Could this even be considered a style?

Chad rolled out of the way of a downward slash and pushed off of the ground with his powerful arm, slinging his body several yards to the right. The human rolled forward again and landed a powerful hay-maker to Ikkaku's hip. The popping noise was deafening, and Ikkaku was lucky to have not screamed.

The shinigami was barely standing as he leaped away, landing and leaning to one side, and he had a permanent scowl on his face. "What the hell was that?"

"All's fair game when it's a fight to the death, right?"

"Death? Really?" Ikkaku snickered. "I'll show you death, if that's what you really want."

The instant that Ikkaku's spiritual pressure began to rise, Chad began to charge his signature attack, an attack he had yet to use in this fight. He was praying that this shinigami was not the type that would have read any report explaining the techniques he had used against Jidanbo, because he wanted to know he still had some kind of advantage.

In some kind of freaky muscle spasm, the shingami's hipbone popped back into its socket, accentuated with a scream of agony. Chad had no idea what kind of muscle strength that would take, but it was the scariest and grossest thing he had ever seen.

The blue energy gathered at the top of his arm, and Chad knew that he could only use this so many times. He hoped he could end it with one forceful blast, so he tried to put his all into it.

"Whatever technique you have up your sleeve is not going to work on me," explained Ikkaku. "My name is Ikakku Madarame, Third Seat of Squad Eleven. You wanted death, so here it is!" His reiatsu continued to rise, glowing a very visible red around his body.  **"Extend, Hozukimaru!"**

Madarame took the sword and sheath and touched them end to end, and they instantly transformed with a flash of red light into a naginata with a light brown wooden staff and a red tassel on the end of it, a large and sharp blade to the other end.

Chad had no idea what had just happened, but he was not about to let his confusion dictate the battle. He quickly finished charging his attack.  **"El Directo!"**

Ikkaku was not fazed by the oncoming energy attack, brandishing his weapon so that the bladed end was pointed toward that attack. In a short downward swing, the shinigami cut through the energy attack like it was made of butter, and the blue blast divided and clashed against the wall behind him, knocking a hole right through it.

"Impressive, but it's not going to fly with me," explained Madarame. "Do you have any idea how hard my captain makes us train against Kido-like attacks? He wants us to know how to beat them, how to cut through them, how to tear them apart with our physical prowess!"

The shinigami rushed forward, stabbing at the disappointed Mexican. Chad slammed his armored fist down against the blunt end of the stabbing weapon, before running along the length of it with surprising speed and attempting to kick Ikkaku in the chest. The enemy let go of the staff with one hand, swinging the right half of his body away from the kick and then elbowing the now closer Chad in the chest.

The two immediately split up, Chad jumping backward and Ikkaku getting into a better stance. With one movement, the shinigami jumped and began to stab at the human repeatedly while in the air, a flurry of jabs and cuts and fakes that a normal person would not have been able to counter.

Chad did not bother countering, instead throwing up his armored arm in front of his face and covering as much of his body as he could with its surface. Cuts appeared in small instances, most of them minor.

He used the other hand to try to knock the staff portion away, and he succeeded once. But it did something very odd, only the middle portion giving way and the front portion swinging up as though on a hinge and cutting into his left forearm.

He cursed, realizing that Hozukimaru could split in three separate sections, divided by a small chain, and Ikkaku spun them around his body delicately.

"You're never going to win, human, so you should give up now. We'll take you into custody and maybe your sentence can be smaller," offered the shinigami. "If you continue this fight, I'll be forced to kill you where you stand."

Chad was not going to offer the man his name, but he did find it condescending that the shinigami referred to him as human. He was human, but he didn't like the way Ikkaku made that sound.

 **"El Directo!"**  The Mexican-Japanese teen threw his fist forward, expelling a smaller blast and then jumping to his right, throwing another. The wounds were all over his body, but he tried to remain calm, keeping himself focused on the fight and not on the growing need to survive.

He continued along that vein, letting loose smaller blasts again and again, trying to overwhelm the Third Seat. But it was not working, Hozukimaru able to defend from every angle with a burst of strengthening reiatsu. Chad cursed, throwing forth another blast before twisting in the air and following the blast quickly.

The sheer versatility of such a strange blade was what made Ikkaku strong, able to spin the weapon quickly as a fan-like shield, or use its long range to attack.

As soon as the blast collided with the bladed end of Hozukimaru, Chad's armored fist collided against Ikkaku's stomach.  **"El Directo!"** In the same instant, the bladed end swung around and clashed against the top of Chad's shoulder, cutting into the very top of it rather deeply.

The energy blast was much weaker than it would have been, colliding with the other man's abdomen and sending him flying back several yards. Blood erupted from the place in Chad's shoulder the instant the blade was yanked away by its wielder.

Chad wanted to hurry and attack again, but Ikkaku responded quickly enough, standing up from a kneel and wiping the blood away from his mouth. The entire front of his shihakusho was missing, only tatters holding it up in the chest area. His stomach was covered in burns, burns that Chad was personally surprised were that severe, given the power and intensity.

"If you think this is going to stop me, you have another thing coming," warned Madarame. Chad had not noticed, but Hozukimaru had sealed itself away, back into its sealed state. The shinigami reached into the sword and touched something to the burns and bruises on his face and cheeks, as well as to the burns on his stomach. "Not exactly the right kind of ointment, but it will seal up the areas. Now, are you ready again?"

Chad did not have to comment, as Ikkaku suddenly sprang forward, flashing into existence in front of Chad and swinging his sheath. The unconventional weapon clobbered him on the right side of his neck, giving Ikkaku just enough time to stab into Chad's right shoulder, just where the other wound was.

He screamed, loudly, realizing that he wasn't going to be able to continue with this kind of wound. Chad fell to his knees, unprepared for the kind of speed that shinigami have with their Shunpo. He held his hand over the wound, keeping it very steady, and tried not to do much of anything.

Ikkaku smirked as he stood over him, his blade sheathed together. "You did well, but I'm afraid that I can't let a nameless opponent live."

The teenager croaked, "Yasutora Sado. My friends call me Chad."

Ikkaku smiled. Not the kind of smile he expected, to be honest. "Well, I suppose you do have a name, Sado." After another moment, he wondered. "Tell you what. Why are you fighting? What are you here for? Tell me that, and I'll consider letting you live."

Chad's mind was overcome with throbbing pain from several places on his body, and he tried to think on what to do. If he were to tell them what they were here for, would it do anyone any good? Would it merely help the shinigami prevent them from rescuing Rukia if they knew that Rukia was the reason they were here?

"Rukia Kuchiki," muttered Chad. "I may not know her very well, but Ichigo does. And I'm here to support him and help him achieve his goal."

Ikkaku raised an eyebrow. "You're here to rescue Rukia? What the hell... Oh. This Ichigo kid; he's the one with the powers that Rukia gave him, right? Why would he want to save that capital offender?"

"He owes her a debt," explained Chad. "She saved his family by granting him powers. I owe Ichigo a debt, from what feels like a long time ago."

"Debts, huh?" Ikkaku considered this. "I suppose I can understand that. I owe a lot of debt to a lot of people. More than I should, probably. But I still manage to continue gambling through it, hoping that taking a risk will pay off with a reward."

The human had no idea what to make of this, but he did not interrupt.

"I guess you guys risked a lot to come here to save her. Risked your lives and your dreams and your futures to save another." Ikkaku pondered how to continue, eventually picking up his katana. "Well, I'm afraid that your debt will not be able to be repaid. Your plan was foolish."

Chad did not respond, his mind going through the motions. What could he do? How could he handle this? What was going to happen? He had to do something.

Instinctually, he attacked with both arms. There was a flash of green light surrounding his right arm for a tiny moment, and it almost felt like his arm bounced off of the air to be faster.

With his left hand, he shoved Ikkaku's stomach out of the way, and with his right hand, he grabbed the sword from the shinigami's grasp. In the next instant, Chad threw up a knee and brought the middle of the katana down onto it with both hands. The muscle strain made Chad scream in agony, but it began to overcome the steel. The shinigami watched in shock as the blade shattered in half, two pieces lying on the ground and several fragments littering the ground beneath Chad's body.

His arm was stinging in pain, but he had moved so quickly that Ikkaku had not expected that kind of speed or strength. Chad stood up and punched the surprised Madarame, his left fist striking the shinigami's jaw with enough force to both crack the bone and send him flying through the air.

Chad dropped to the ground the moment that he felt Ikkaku's energy drop to unconscious levels. He looked at the end of the Hozukimaru's hilt and pulled the ointment from the compartment, treating his own wounds. He felt the blood stop flowing from his numerous cuts, but the stab wound on his shoulder was deep enough that he feared internal bleeding.

The armored skin eventually melted away, revealing his normal skin tone, and the wound looked even nastier. His odd durability would hopefully save him, as he picked himself up and walked over to Ikkaku's unconscious form.

"I will repay the debt I owe my friend, because that is the kind of person that I am."

He laid the sword with its pieces mostly together on the ground by Ikkaku's left arm. With every last bit of his strength, he pulsed his spiritual pressure several times as a kind of SOS for any potential help that could be given to Ikkaku. When he was sure he had disappeared, he hurried out of the area and hoped no one would find him.

The biggest question on his mind had been the green light he had noticed around his arm, that gave him a boost of sorts. What had that been? What did it mean?

He crossed a corner and ran straight into Ganju, the two of them landing atop one another.

"Hey! Watch where you're goi-" The man paused, pointing to the boy's bleeding shoulder. "Oh, are you okay? Did you beat him?"

Chad nodded. "I'll be fine. I just... need to get out of here. We both do, to find somewhere to hide."

Ganju nodded, leaning the boy against his shoulder and helping carry him toward any kind of safe place. Chad had used almost everything up, and he had a glaring wound as well. He had no idea how he was going to be able to keep fighting if he couldn't get medical attention soon. But from who?

"I need... Orihime."

* * *

Momo could hardly believe that she had figured out the word that she needed to factor into the spell seal in order to create a new spell. "Ibis..."

"What did you say, Lieutenant Hinamori?" asked a voice from behind her. The kind man was looking over his desk, looking surprisingly calm for the situation waging on around them.

"Oh, nothing," she explained sheepishly, not wanting to explain the situation to him. Naruto, Izuru, and Hinamori had all agreed to keep it a secret in order to save their reputation if it did not manage to work. But with all the pieces in the puzzle, Momo was thinking that it might!

She felt a touch of Naruto's spiritual pressure around her and she looked up to see a Hell Butterfly heading into the room from a window.

"You know, sending lovers' messages like that is frowned upon," the Captain said, barely looking up from the desk.

Hinamori blushed, before realizing that the Hell Butterfly had a protective Kido covering it. As it came to rest on her fingertips, she could not hear the message without speaking the incantation that would allow her to be the only person that could hear it.

She frowned, because something was wrong. She could not remember the incantation for that Kido. Why would she not remember that? That was not like her at all.

"Is something the matter, Momo?" asked Aizen, watching her intently. He could see the distress written on her face.

She wanted to decline, but he could see right through her. She knew that and he knew that. Momo blushed. "Um, Captain, I can't remember the incantation for a coded Hell Butterfly Kido. I don't understand why I can't remember it at all!"

The captain smiled, before reaching over and tapping it. "There you go, it's uncoded now. You can hear it at your leisure." He must have that so memorized that he can do that whenever he wishes.

Momo excused herself to step out of the room and listen to it, just in case it was something very dangerous.

 _"I've been lying to you, Momo, and I hate myself for that. I hope that you will come to understand why I have and why I had to keep the truth even hidden from you, the person that I can't live without."_  Naruto's voice sounded somber, filled with guilt, and Momo did not understand what was going on.  _"I have not been completely straightforward about the Ryoka situation or how I'm intricately involved with it and Rukia's execution._

_"I helped Rukia lie and bought her some more time in the World of the Living. I knew about Ichigo Kurosaki for over a month and did not tell a soul. That is the main part where I've gone wrong. I helped her commit her crime, and I can barely live with myself because I have every right to be executed as well. I am torn between helping the Soul Society and helping Rukia's friends save her, and I don't know if I can take it all on alone anymore."_

Momo felt a tear falling down her cheek, and she wiped it away, not sure how to feel about what was happening. She gripped her shihakusho for support.

_"So I am telling you, not to put you in danger, but to tell you the truth and I hope that you'll forgive me for letting you in on it. I'm scared that something will happen to me or to Rukia or to one of her friends, and I feel really caught up in all this. I tried to make sure that only you can hear this, so that you don't have to worry about anyone learning that you know about it too. If something happens, I'm glad that you know the truth."_

Momo watched the Hell Butterfly fly away as she tried to maintain her composure.


	17. Unpredictable

The human gripped his blade tighter as the blonde recovered, rubbing the top of her head.

"What the hell was that, Mr. Strawberry Cheese Fondue?!" Samui shouted in exasperation, rubbing her jaw as she prepared herself.

"Something that I learned from a friend," Ichigo muttered, before stopping to think. "My name does not mean 'strawberry'! My dad said it means 'one who protects'. And quit making fun of my hair!"

The instant that he finished shouting, Ichigo dashed forward, trying to mimic Urahara and his style. He was hoping to have thrown her off guard by moving so quickly, but he was not sure that he actually had.

Samui rubbed her jaw and guarded with one hand. Her expression changed the instant that the more confident Ichigo hit her zanpakutou, and she had to actively stop herself from being pushed back into the wall. The Third Seat of Squad Seven cursed, twisting to try to counter attack, but Ichigo stopped it by maneuvering his foot under her guard to knock her to the ground.

She flipped backwards into a backhand spring, landing perfectly upright in time to stop a lunge with a quick swing and her awkward one-handed grip.

"If you used both hands, you'd probably have more power," Ichigo suggested, pressing into her with his own superior strength.

"Power does not mean anything if you have the skill."

If Ichigo had to guess, if she and Urahara were of a similar rank, Samui would easily be the more skilled of the two. She really was an interesting fighter, someone whose grip was unorthodox, even noticeable to him with no real experience.

The shinigami changed her hand suddenly, instantly challenging Ichigo to try to counter it. It happened so fast that he did not see it coming, and the human barely got out of the way of a powerful downward strike that could have cut him in two.

"Damn it, you're tricky." Ichigo was running out of ideas, because she had the clear advantage with zanjutsu. He had to find a way to power through it, or he'd have nothing.

"Well, I choose to be. My style, I suppose, is to be so unpredictable that no one knows what I'll do next," explained his enemy, and the moment that Ichigo felt her reiatsu rise to a stifling level, he tried to hide his surprise."Strike, Inabikari!"

In a stunning, almost blinding flash, her sword split into two. Both weapons were jagged at the hilt so that the steel portion almost looked like a upside down number sevens. Adding the hilts where she holding them, they looked like twin lightning bolts. Samui smirked at him as he watched in amazement.

"This is my Shikai, human. Enjoy it for the few seconds that you can."

Ichigo was not about to let her do something crazy, running toward her at a full sprint, but he felt the air around him grow suddenly damp. The shinigami opponent glanced at him with a glint in her eye and clicked her blades together.

Yellow energy erupted in the space between the two fighters, cackling in a defined current of air and clashing against the metal of Ichigo's Zangetsu. Ichigo fell to his knees under the onslaught of electricity, making it difficult to see and even more difficult to hear. The pain was excruciating and Ichigo dropped to his knees, smoking from its power.

"How'd you like that, Ryoka?"

"It was... fun," he muttered, not surprising her at all. "I always try to get electrocuted in battle." The human stood, preparing to draw his weapon toward her again. "You done?"

* * *

Squad Eleven and Squad Seven were already filling the relief stations inside of the Squad Four barracks, and Sakura was swamped with so many things going on at once. She was starting to feel the effects of her reishi being depleted, especially because she was spending half of the time watching the battles on her spiritual radar.

"You seem distracted, Sakura," Hanataro said aloud, and Sakura had to break her vigilance to communicate with her. "The guy back there needed a reishi transplant, but you gave him the supplement instead. I had to pick up the slack."

Sakura frowned at the usually timid shinigami. "I'm sorry, I'm just worried about something. Worried about everyone's safety."

Hanataro smiled. "I'm sure everyone's going to be fine. No one on their side has died yet, and we haven't had any deaths here either. It's probably naive, but maybe everyone will live?"

It  _was_  naive. If this conflict were to escalate and Ichigo was mad enough, he would tear through anyone to get to Rukia and save her. And if the shinigami were pressed enough, they would eliminate the Ryoka altogether and everything would pass like nothing ever happened.

She noticed something weird about Hanataro's optimism. Did he not want any of the Ryoka to die? He was a very hopeful person, he just did not show it very often. Did he want them to live? Her mind thought back to the routine he had been on the past few days. He had been tending to Rukia while she had been in the Squad Six barracks. Did he feel for Rukia as well, and not want her to die either?

The pink-haired shinigami prepared a reishi transfer, dipping her own reiatsu into the wound of someone who had lost quite a bit of their spiritual power in a fight, as well as losing blood. She tapped the palm of her hand, activating the Kido that could transfer her own into his, for just a quick jumpstart. When the fluid-like energy left her palm, she smiled as the man's wound began to regenerate itself, albeit slowly.

Sakura was familiar enough with the Ryoka that she could pinpoint the hard and durable reiatsu of Chad, the delicate and vibrant reiatsu of Orihime, the calm and closed-off reiatsu of Uryu, and the huge and unstable reiatsu of Ichigo. No matter how much they trained, the familiarity of their signatures would never go away to her. And she had no idea what Yoruichi's reiatsu was like.

Uryu had not gotten into a conflict, except to send several men to the relief station by confusing them inside the pathways and making groups collide together. Orihime and Ichigo were both in fights at the moment, but with whom she could not tell. Chad and Ganju had apparently won large fights earlier, and had gotten into smaller conflicts, but she could tell that Chad had fought the hardest based on his reiatsu fluctuations.

He was probably injured, and Sakura frowned. Orihime was nowhere near them; it had upset her so much the instant that she realized that the Ryoka were all divided, because they would not be able to support each other. Orihime would not be able to heal them when they became wounded, and fighting against people with swords rarely leaves people unwounded. Sakura could not be more angry at the situation.

She realized after leaving them, after helping them train, that she was rooting for them. She wanted them to win. It would have felt disingenuous if she had not, but she could never be that closed off. She actively wished for them to save Rukia Kuchiki from her death, and if she could help it, she wanted to see what she could do to help.

Sakura did not want to risk her job, and she wondered if Naruto was facing a similar dilemma. She knew that he had helped Rukia during her two month sentence keep up the cover, and she knew that he had helped hide Ichigo for as long as he could. He had to be feeling torn in two, had to be feeling as conflicted as she was.

The Fourth Seat was not about to let one of them die. She couldn't. She just had to figure out how she was going to do it, and she was starting to wonder if Hanataro would be willing to help her.

* * *

Orihime was terrified. Nothing had ever trained her for this, no matter how much Sakura had tried, she felt very overwhelmed. She gripped the inside of her shield, keeping her fingers and her knees attached to it, and was actively moving it back and forth to her will.

The Rikka were trying to shout things at her from their flight-mode transformations, from where Baigon, Lily, and Hinagiku were situated at the triangular points of the shield. They were giving her cool-down advice and hints at how to avoid attacks and use their abilities, but she was getting more and more flustered.

Orihime could tell that the shield was breaking, was getting weaker as her emotional state fluctuated. The projectiles were heading for her, shuriken formed from someone's shikai, and she had been able to defend most of them with her shield, blocking from the bottom by extending and becoming bigger or smaller.

The cloud of shuriken, rapidly-spinning ninja stars that seemed to hang in the air and change directions at will, stopped just under her shield. Then, to her shock, the entire cloud tried to go around Santen Kesshun at the time and impale her from all sides.

She screamed, willing her powers to allow her to do something, and the shield shot higher in the air at such a fast speed that she was forced against its surface. The drain on her spiritual powers was evident, but as she watched through the glowing orange pane of light, the shuriken collided with one another.

 _"Come on, do something!"_  shouted Tatsuki from her side, floating next to her in flight mode along with Ayame and Shun'o close behind.

Orihime nodded, surveying the ground from that high up, trying to find her attacker. Someone familiar-looking, at least from that high up, was standing on a roof, alone, looking straight at her. Spinning stars of metal hovered around him, preparing to strike at her at the man's will.

"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun, I reject!"

The Rikka began to glow orange, speeding toward the rooftop like some kind of fiery meteor with wings. The shinigami waved the hilt he was holding in the air, and his zanpakutou moved quickly to block the attack. Tsubaki ran right into the group of shuriken, having to pull himself away to return to her.

"Pathetic! Your attack is useless! Where is your intent to kill!? You'll never get anywhere without it!"

Orihime frowned, her confidence falling as she shield did as well. The shinigami did not try to attack her as she let the shield fall down to the roof, but she did not return her Rikka to their pin forms.

"Even if you are pathetically weak without an intent to kill me, your powers are still interesting," the man said, his weapons floating around him. Orihime's did the same, revolving around her like she was some kind of planet with orbiting satellites. "You seem to use flying weapons as well. I'll have you know that I'm the master of flying weapons! I even have a special nickname, Jirobo of the Wind Scythe!"

Orihime watched calmly, but she was mystified by his alias "That's actually a really cute nickname."

"Cute?" the man scoffed, "Wind Scythe is not cute! It's a weapon of death from the air! It signifies the proverbial hurricane of destruction and pain!"

The man prepared another attack, sending the cloud of projectiles at her. Orihime's shield popped up out of instinct, blocking the first wave and destroying the shuriken, and the second wave had to veer off or they would be broken as well. She marveled at the fact that she had not had to do anything for it to appear, that she had not had to use the kotodama.

Orihime had to keep reminding herself that she was in control, that she could handle this man, that she could handle any threat, but it was hard. It was very hard, because Jirobo's weapons were more versatile than hers were.

"I suppose that shield of yours is useful, but it will take more than that to defeat me!" exclaimed Jirobo, swinging his hilt and guiding the shuriken like puppets on an invisible string. They headed right for her from the sides and the front and the top, preventing her from flying away, and Orihime put one hand on the outstretched shield.

Instantly, it rocketed backward several yards, enough for the shuriken to hit each other again. "Tsubaki!"

The Rikka rushed forward again, aiming this time for the cluttered weapons falling to the ground. The cutting sprite managed to hit all of the falling shuriken on the way down, zigzagging through the air as they fell. All of them were cut to pieces, and Jirobo screeched.

"You're better than I thought you'd be, little girl!" The shinigami mimicked drawing another sword, and another cloud of shuriken returned from the inside of the sheath. "But if I don't kill you now, I'll lose all self-respect. You can only ride your shield so many times before I figure out how to attack you from all angles, and then what are you going to do?"

Jirobo attacked again, and the spinning flying weapons proved to be less durable each time he brought more out. A helpful observation from Baigon, who was in the far left corner of the shield. Orihime could feel her spiritual power weakening the longer she kept the shield up, but she had to keep going. No matter what happened, it was necessary to keep going! She had to stay and fight!

They collided against the shield again, and she tried to do several things at once. She sent Tsubaki at the enemy, using the kotodama in her head, and then she dropped to the roof with her back against it, her shield in front of her, and the weapons could not reach her back.

 _"Be creative. You have perhaps the most versatile abilities I have ever seen. You can move the shield, you can ride the shield, you can heal yourself in battle. Try to use your environment to your advantage,"_  Sakura had said during their training days.  _"Your versatility and the enemy not knowing what to expect from you will be a huge force you can rely on. Both you and Chad are unknowns to them. Take that advice to heart."_

As the shield started to crack, each crack sending a shiver down Orihime's spine, she watched as Tsubaki was fired through the air, like a bullet train going off, and Jirobo had to leap backwards out of the way to evade it. But the Rikka followed the shinigami, adjusting its route and speeding up.

Orihime was not going to let herself die, was not going to let her lack of confidence be her defeat. She was going to win, no matter what!

 _"We believe in you!"_  the five Rikka who were with her shouted at the same time.

Tsubaki hit the shinigami's front, cutting into his chest, and Orihime screamed and shut her eyes in terror as her shield broke into hundreds of pieces like shattered glass.

When something fell to the ground in her side vision, she was nearly too scared to look. She vomited at the sight of Jirobo cut cleanly in half, dead as blood pooled around his body. His now sealed blade lay at his chest, and Tsubaki returned to her and the other Rikka.

"No. No no no!" Orihime ran forward, and not even Tsubaki could act nonplussed. She had cut the opponent in half, had been determined to protect herself, and it cost a man his life.

This was not like the minor wounds she had inflicted on Daichi Tsubasa and his friends. This was a killing, and the guilt was practically crushing her on the inside and the outside. It had happened so fast, she was not even sure she knew how to react to it.

"Ayame! Shun'o! Soten Kisshun, I reject!"

The two Rikka formed the dome of golden light, extending to cover the man's entire body. Tears were streaming down her face. She had never expected it to be like this. She had never expected to have to fight his ferociously, to fight to this dangerous level. She killed someone! How in the hell was her healing ability supposed to undo that?

Nevertheless, she knelt next to the body of the man, ignoring the blood staining the knees of her pants. She was going to try. She had to try. Had to.

It took several minutes for her to realize that nothing was happening. She inserted her hands into the shield and tried to touch the two halves together, her body practically on autopilot so that her stomach would not lurch again. The man was heavy, but she managed to align the pieces back where they should have gone. She pulled herself from the field, noticing that the scrapes she had on her fingers from when she dropped to the roof had healed while they were in the field, but the man was not healing yet.

Why wouldn't it work? Why not heal him? She should be able to fix this, should be able to solve the problem she created! He may have attacked her, but he was provoked by her very presence! She should have never come to the Soul Society in the first place, because if she hadn't, then this man would not have had to die! He was only doing his duty, and yet, here he was, unable to do anything but lay dead.

Voices shocked her out of her state several minutes later, and she realized that she wasn't doing anything. It took a few moments for her to realize that she had to slip away, and using Tsubaki to spy on the area for her, she found an escape route down a back alley that lead back into the maze of passageways.

Orihime recalled Ayame and Shun'o, wiping away her tears. She had no idea how to feel, how to process, but she felt numb to the very footsteps she was taking.

* * *

Yoruichi should have interrupted. She could only blame herself at this point, for trying to let Orihime handle that on her own. Now she was dealing with even more than she already was, and Yoruichi could not even be proud of ingenuity she had displayed on the battlefield. Her sometimes odd and distracted personality gave her some truly wacky strategies, and they had really worked, but it was dealing with the death of enemy that would be her downfall. It was dealing with the idea that her healing ability would not allow her make up for her mistakes.

Yoruichi was more worried now than ever that she would start blaming herself and start seeing herself as a victim. This whole situation was tough, was very tough, but Orihime would emerge as a stronger person at the end of this. She would emerge as someone that can protect themselves and protect others. Yoruichi just needed to give her some more time to handle that.

The cat had nearly jumped down from the perch where she had watched from, but something happened. Something so surprising that she nearly fell from the top of the roof.

In the instant that followed, she assumed that it had been a bad trick of the lighting or perhaps the wind. But upon further inspection, it was clear.

Jirobo Ikkanzaka had lifted his arm. And then he screamed in agony, a mighty bellow that alerted the people nearby that had spawned Orihime's retreat.

Yoruichi was flabbergasted. Shinigami could survive from very odd injuries sometimes, like missing limbs or disturbed organs. But getting cut in half as exactly as that from Tsubaki was impossible to revive from.

The girl had brought him back to life, but only just. The man was likely still wounded, at least visually, so that must have been why Orihime had still been upset when she left.

Orihime Inoue could revive the dead.

* * *

Shikamaru had always hated heading to the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. He much preferred getting a report from them, or receiving a Hell Butterfly from them. He never wanted to step foot anywhere near the labs, because not a single bit of it interested him.

He did not want to know how to use their complicated computer systems to analyze spiritual pressures virtually all over the World of the Living. He did not want to know how they could monitor his every move, if they only had the opportunity to try. He just did not want to know.

He descended into the lower levels, having been ushered in by Third Seat Akon, a younger man with interesting horns on his head and perhaps the most intelligent and inquisitive mind in all of the Soul Society. Akon showed a lot of promise to take over the Institute, and often ran it during times of peace and when Kurotsuchi was working on a new passion project. Shikamaru's skin crawled the more he thought about it.

"I'm glad you're here, Nara," said Akon. "I heard through the grapevine that you encountered some interesting data about a place in the World of the Living?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I probably should have waited until all of this Ryoka business is solved, but it was bugging me."

"Can I see your findings?" the scientist asked, as he led Shikamaru deeper into the bowels of the Institute.

Nara shook his head, gesturing to the stack of papers bound under his arm. "I'm afraid not, sorry. I don't want the word about this to spread, just in case."

Akon nodded in understanding, as he opened the last door and gestured inside. "All right, go on in. Captain Kurotsuchi is waiting. Be sure not to sneak up on him; the last person who did wound up as a puddle of goo for nine hours." Akon closed the door behind him, and Shikamaru gulped for good measure.

Shikamaru tried not to look too hard at everything around him, expecting to see crazy experiments and insane gadgets. He did not know the captain very well, but the man had a reputation.

"What do you have for me?" asked the scientist in his sneering voice, not looking up from the illuminated table in front of him. "And can you explain why your reiatsu levels were shifting earlier this morning?"

The Squad Eight Third Seat groaned, wondering how he managed to see it. He was hoping to not have to explain himself for allowing the Quincy to get away, if he just never mentioned it at all.

"How exactly did you find out about that?"

"I did a little checking around, when I heard the other day that you were going to come," he muttered. "I also checked your background. In your near four decades as an active shinigami, you have excelled in waiting until the last minute to do anything. I could consider it a lack of motivation, but I suppose that geniuses do think alike. And what exactly is this I hear about your-"

"Sir, can we just move on?"

Mayuri studied him for a few moments, like an ant under a magnifying glance.

"Not until you explain to me exactly why you have not made it public knowledge that you encountered one of the Ryoka early this morning," the captain said menacingly. "Early this morning,  _before_ the Ryoka blasted through the membrane into the Seireitei."

Shikamaru had to think on the fly. Why was he acting so antagonistic? "The Ryoka had unusual skills, skills that I could not counter on my own. I had to retreat."

Mayuri's expression changed instantly. "Interesting skills, eh? What does that mean?"

"He was a Quincy, sir," Shikamaru said after a short moment of consideration. "I did not know how to fight a Quincy."

The slippery shinigami moved so fast that Shikamaru felt compelled to put a hand on his sword, but it was only through his best logic that he refrained. Captain Kurotsuchi was standing so close to him, within inches of him, studying ever inch of his face.

"A Quincy? That is the best news I have heard all week! I once experimented on a Quincy. It sure was a shame that he died in the process." Mayuri's mind was reeling through the possibility, and he turned away to go quickly to his computer. "One of the Ryoka is a Quincy. What fun!"

Shikamaru almost raised a hand to get some attention, but the other shinigami was no longer paying any attention. He wanted to ask Kurotsuchi what he knew about the mist surrounding the Elemental Nations, the area where he and Naruto had come from when they were alive. He knew better, realizing that the captain was not going to give him the time of day anymore.

"I'll see myself out," he muttered, turning away and closing the door. He barely received a grunt of a response.

* * *

With a new strategy in mind, Ichigo turned quickly in mid dash, jumping to the top of the wall and then leaping over the street where Samui was standing.

His opponent made a motion with her hands, clicking the weapon again. The lightning bolt followed after him, but Ichigo dove to his right, aiming right for her. The area of effect for her electrical attack was defined to a certain area, and Ichigo realized that she was doing something to the air currents in order to create the lightning. If he stayed out of those currents, he would be safe from her lightning.

He swung his blade, and Samui threw up both to block, catching his larger zanpakutou in between the two weapons. The shingiami shouted, pressing into his weapon hard enough that Ichigo felt himself being pushed back.

"I figured out your trick," he explained. "You're dampening the air currents somehow, and that is how you're guiding the lightning. But you don't want to hit me with me being this close to you!"

Samui smirked. "You're not the first to figure that out, but you're smarter than I thought." She pushed back again, unlocking Inabikari from Zangetsu and trying to get some distance again. The moment she could, Ichigo felt the space around him grow wet and sticky, and he could not move fast enough.

The yellow electrical attack surged through his body for only a split second, like running into a high-powered electrical fence. He shook it off, ignoring the burns gathering on his arms, and he jumped forward again. He skirted alongside the field of dampened air, staying where it was significantly less humid, and headed right for her.

Ichigo felt the tension in his joints and his muscles, putting as much power into the next diagonal swing as he could. Samui made to block it, but Ichigo smirked, changing directions at the last moment. Zangetsu made purchase, cutting into the space above the woman's hip.

The shinigami screamed, holding the wound on her side. Ichigo pulled back Zangetsu, resting it on his shoulder, as Samui fought to stand. She only had one blade to use, and the other hand was trying to prevent blood loss.

"Damn it," she muttered, knees shaking. "You're good for a human. But don't think I can't figure something out." The woman let go of her wound and held a bloody palm outstretched. "Sokatsui!"

Ichigo did not flinch as the blast of fiery blue energy sparked through the air. The heat was tremendous, but he had witnessed more powerful Kido. He swiped the attack away from him with a gesture of Zangetsu, looking at her with a daring look suggesting that she try again.

"It's going to take much more than that. I've seen Rukia use an attack like that before, and I know how to counter them," he explained, dashing toward his enemy. With one swoop, another huge but shallow gash extended from the base of her navel to her left breast, blood spewing everywhere. Samui had not even been able to move her free, clean sword to block it.

The shinigami fell to the ground, screaming in agony before eventually falling silent, breathing hard. "Lost to a human."

"Don't discredit me just because I'm a human," Ichigo said, walking over to her. Inabikari returned to its sealed state. "I'll succeed in saving Rukia."

"Your goal is to save Rukia? Good luck with that," Samui said, her breath hitched as she held her wound closed. "I'm only a Third Seat. There are thirteen lieutenants and thirteen captains at a higher rank than me. Until you're powerful enough to defeat all of them, what chance do you actually think you have that you'll save her?" She nearly laughed. "Why would you even want to anyway?"

"If you had a chance to save one of your best friends from an unjust sentence, and had the ability and the powers necessary to save her, would you?"

Samui sighed, the pain evident on her face. "Depends on your definition of unjust. You are clearly not supposed to have shinigami abilities, and yet, here you are." She coughed, crimson liquid spraying against the ground next to her head.

Ichigo bent down to her prone form, quickly tearing off a long piece of the wrapping for Zangetsu. The instant that he started to wrap her wounds, she protested. "What are you doing?"

"I'm not the kind of person to let someone who isn't a threat to me die," he muttered. "You're no longer a threat, so I'll help you."

She did not protest, thinking that maybe he was right. Within several minutes, he had wrapped the severe wounds with bandages. He then used the same strategy on himself, covering any cuts and bruises and electrical burns, before picking up his blade. "I'll probably have to leave Zangetsu out for a while, because it'll take time for the wrapping to regenerate."

Samui did not say her gratitude or anything else about the matter, but Ichigo hoped that she was thankful. Not because he felt he was deserving of his thanks, but that he did help her a small amount, and that was better than letting her die, right?

He hurried away from there, hoping that he could find someone to heal him. He hoped that someone would find her and save her from her wounds as well. The first night he met Rukia, the shinigami had withstood some very bad injuries, but they were all gone by the next morning. Surely someone could heal Samui and save her from her death.

He tried to use his spiritual senses to see how the others were doing, but it was infinitely clear that he had not figured out the trick yet. He hoped that everyone else was winning as well, and that he would not have to come home without one of his friends.

* * *

Almost an hour later, it had been Tenten that found Samui, unable to move but still conscious. She had hurried Samui back to the Squad Four barracks, moving as quickly as she could. One of the only rooms available was a joint room where Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayasegawa were lying on gurneys for treatment. Samui was wheeled in as well, and Tenten was surprised to see Kenpachi and Yachiru were there, looking as powerful and angry as possible.

"Oh, hello, Captain Kenpachi and Lieutenant Kusajishi. I thought you were in the barracks," Tenten said, bowing lightly to him. He gestured pointedly at his hands, hating all of that formal stuff.

"Hey, it's Tenda Ears!" the pink-haired lieutenant said, and Tenten tried to ignore the amalgamation of 'panda ears' and her name. "How did you manage to avoid the fighting so far? Almost our entire squad is wiped out."

She was in shock. "Really? They must be strong. I never ran into one of them."

Kenpachi could hardly concentrate, the almost too playful anger evident on his face. "I had to ask that damned scientist to know for sure, but I know which one I want to fight. I wonder if Komamura will mind." He looked pointedly at Samui's body. "Ichigo Kurosaki, I'm coming for you."

* * *

Naruto was on pins and needles the entire time he was standing outside the Squad One barracks, waiting for the lieutenants' meeting to begin. Not because of the content of the meeting, but because he was certain that he would see Momo, and he was nervous.

He had told her everything, everything that he had been hiding from her. He was completely on a clean slate, and it was up to Momo as to whether or not she would accept that. He should have been honest to her from the beginning, but it was too late now. He trusted her, but not enough, apparently.

The other lieutenants slowly began to trickle into the room, the room that was headed by Sasakibe. He was sipping tea and trying to calm down, but it was obvious that the powerful lieutenant was considering all kinds of scenarios based on how the invasion was faring for the Ryoka, and not for their own soldiers.

The instant that Momo approached from the north, Naruto tried to get her attention.

"Later, Naruto. We'll talk later."

The anger in her voice was obvious, and as the brunette walked inside, he tried to keep from getting upset.

"Come on, we'll have a minute or two before it starts!"

"I don't want to be distracted, and you should not want that either," Momo explained. "I would hate for you to miss some important detail, and be out of the loop for literally years."

The sarcasm stung, but the meeting was ready to begin. Squad Four Third Seat Iemura was there, prepared to read a report of the day's casualties. His blonde hair was covered in sweat, and it was apparent that he was exhausted from overworking himself.

Chojiro gave him the signal. "Here's the latest situation report! Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayesagawa have apparently been withdrawn from the front lines effective immediately. It's reported that both high-ranking officers have retained serious injuries. A detailed damage report of the entire squad is currently underway, but for now, all we have to go on are unconfirmed preliminary reports of the day's action, which would seem to indicate that Squad Eleven was almost completely annhilated."

Several lieutenants gasped, and even Naruto found it hard to believe that Ichigo and the others were strong enough that they had defeated a Third and Fifth seat, especially from Squad Eleven. And on top of that, practically the entire squad was gone?

"What?" asked Kira, his expression of shock. "That's impossible."

"Not Squad Eleven!" muttered Hinamori from Naruto's side, almost too softly to be heard.

"How could a handful of Ryoka have done such a massive amount of damage in just a few hours?" asked Hisagi of Squad Nine.

"Three members of the Ryoka have been positively identified, but no other details can be established about them." Iemura turned to Nanao of Squad Eight. "One, the only female of the group, is suspected to possess a healing ability and to be the victim of an attempted sexual assault in one of the Western Rukongai districts."

Naruto's anger bubbled up, and something clicked in his mind. Daichi had tried to rape Orihime? He'd kill him when he was done with all of this. He should have killed him a long time ago for almost subjecting Hinamori to the same treatment, and he reached out to grip Momo's shoulder supportively. She brushed him off, obviously not wanting anything to do with him, even if it was good-natured and not involved at all with what was going on.

"That poor girl," Matsumoto said, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Poor girl? She probably deserved it!" bellowed Omaeda, and within seconds, every girl, and some of the guys, in the room turned on him. It only took a burst of spiritual pressure from Chojiro for everyone to behave.

"Intelligence indicates that this group is heading this way," continued Iemura. "However, since a short time ago, we've been unable to locate any of their spiritual pressures, so their whereabouts are now unknown."

Naruto looked around the room, seeing the thoughtful faces. Renji had an interesting look of intensity in his eyes, and Naruto wondered what he was thinking about.

"Obviously, our intelligence leaves something to be desired," Lieutenant Ise commented.

Lieutenant Iba spoke up, adjusting his sunglasses. "That's not a comprehensive report, is it? It's been quite some time since I have heard from either my Third Seat or my Fourth Seat. Several members of Squad Seven have been admitted to the hospital, so Samui and Jirobo probably got into fights and lost." He looked up, crossing his arms. "We'd better send someone to the West Twenty region to check on him. And someone to the North Twenty-Four region for Samui."

Iemura checked his data, before realizing that there was a second page. "Oh, I am sorry. Third Seat Samui and Fourth Seat Ikkanzaka were admitted to Squad Four only a short time ago, and both sustained very, very high injuries."

"Yep! Kenny and I were just there!" Yachiru shouted from her place in the lineup, way too cheerfully for Naruto's tastes.

Naruto did the tally in his head. The group of Ryoka had five members and a cat, and there were four high-ranking officers that were defeated. Two Third Seats, a Fourth Seat, and a Fifth Seat. All but Jirobo were on Third Seat level. Amazing. It was amazing to him.

But what terrified him more was the idea that Kenpachi witnessed the wounded opponents. Knowing him, he was looking for a good fight, and he was probably going to go after the strongest among them. There was no way that Ichigo could win against Kenpachi, so he had to hope that he was just guessing.

"First Jidanbo and now his brother, Jirobo? Can they both really have been defeated?" asked Hisagi, struggling to wrap his head around the impossibly powerful Ryoka.

Naruto shot a glance at Momo, who was covering her mouth in nervousness. She was probably reflecting on everything she was hearing and trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Naruto had helped the Ryoka that were taking out their allies. She probably had no idea how to respond to any of this.

"Hey, if you-"

She cut him off, turning away from him. "Well, this is quite the mess, isn't it, Ren-" But Renji was gone, and Naruto had not even noticed. The door was ajar, swinging lightly in the wind from outside.


	18. Cloak and Dagger

The sun was starting to set, and Chad could not feel his wound getting any better. The two separate gashes on his right shoulder were much worse when his arm reverted to normal, and no amount of wrapping them up was getting them to heal any faster

"I can make a poultice for you!" Ganju had suggested.

Chad had known there was a problem. "How would you do that without any herbs or materials?"

Ganju had shut up then, but Chad was not ungrateful. The two of them had been traversing the city literally all day, but they had not run into any other shinigami since around lunch time, when Ganju sent several Squad Eleven grunts to the hospital. The man had done a lot for the teenager, and Chad respected him for that.

"We should probably take a rest," Ganju suggested, sitting down right where he stood before Chad could disagree. The Mexican was not going to argue, resting his weak muscles and trying to regain the energy he had used up during the fight with Ikkaku.

He wished that he could somehow jumpstart the healing process for his wounds, but that was not his forte. They had had no luck locating Orihime, losing her trail early in the morning and never finding any record of her presence after that. He was still worried for her, and for Ichigo and Uryu. He was worried for himself as well, and he worried for Sakura. How was she doing after she returned to the Seireitei? Was she handling their invasion well from her side?

Ganju eventually fell into tales of Bonnie and all of Bonnie's family, and Chad thought it was a wonder that they had not been caught just from Ganju's voice alone. The enigmatic boar-lover was an odd creature that reminded him far too much of Ichigo, if the orange-haired shinigami were a bit less brooding.

Chad did not tell when he managed to start falling asleep, but as he shook himself awake, he shook his shoulder in just the right way to make one of the gashes re-open. Soon enough, the wrappings around it were stained in red, and Chad winced in pain.

"Oh, no," Ganju half-mumbled, breaking out of a story of the time that Kukaku accidently kicked Bonnie in the ass. "You all right?"

Chad nodded. "Yeah, I think so. It just hurts."

"I'll change the bandages," he offered, starting to do just that when they heard a voice calling out for them.

"Hey! Hey! Chad!"

It was an unfamiliar voice, and Chad fought the urge to call on his spiritual power. Ganju shot into a fighting stance, not sure who or what this guy approaching was.

"Who the hell are you and how do you know his name?" Ganju demanded.

The young-looking shinigami was very petite, with a sash connecting a back-pack around his back. His blue-black hair was a bit longer and more unruly than Uryu's, and his face was innocent-looking, almost like a child.

Ganju took advantage, taking out his weapon and preparing to attack. The other literally threw up his hands in surrender, stumbling over his words to explain himself.

"No, no, don't attack me! My name is Hanataro Yamada, and I'm the Seventh Seat of Squad Four!"

"Squad Four?" asked Chad, remembering a detail about Sakura. He was going to bring it up, but he did not, just in case it became relevant. He did not want to expose Sakura as having helped them prepare for battle.

"Yes," he explained. "I'm here to help you!"

"I don't what the hell you think you're doing-" Ganju was not convinced, but eventually, Chad guided himself to his feet, biting through the pain silently, and putting his left hand on the man's shoulder to silence him.

"Let him explain himself."

The shinigami was very nervous, noticeably so. "Well, you see, one of my superiors sent me here to help you. She said that you would know her, Chad."

"Sakura," he said, nodding in confirmation. He let out a sigh in relief, realizing that this guy had been sent here from the medical squad and from Sakura to give them medical relief. Everything clicked into place, and he could not be more grateful for the pink-haired shinigami than that moment.

"So you're here from Squad Four," summarized Ganju. "I have no idea whether or not to trust you or not."

"You can trust him," Chad confirmed. "If there's anyone we can trust, it's Sakura. And if she trusts him enough to let him in on the whole secret, then we can trust him."

Hanataro nodded, glad that they were taking this better than he expected.

"Good, I suppose," Ganju finally said, before gesturing to Chad's shoulder and the other wounds all across his body. "The shinigami that he fought roughed him up quite a bit. His body's not healing itself, so he needs medical attention."

Chad was glad that Hanataro was here, because he really did need the help. It took several moments before the shinigami had everything lined up and the right instruments set up. Before too much longer, Hanataro injected a needle into Chad's right arm, and the feeling was suddenly lost.

"There we go. I'll take care of you. But we need to get off the main road."

"Why?" Ganju asked, confused.

"There will be a patrol coming by here soon, and we need to be out of the way," Hanataro explained, before realizing that he had an idea.

* * *

The sun was dimming in the sky, but Renji had been sitting in the mist for long enough that he was almost soaked. The Senzaikyu stretched high above him.

He let off small pulses of reiatsu, hoping that Ichigo would catch on, because he knew the fool was nearby and heading this way. He was not sure why Ichigo knew where Rukia was, but for whatever reason, Renji was directly in Ichigo's path. It was only a matter of time before Ichigo would find him.

What was the human doing here? What did Ichigo think he would accomplish? Renji already knew a lot of things about Ichigo's personality from their last encounter, about how he did not go down without a fight. Ichigo was a stubborn idiot and would have to have the idea beaten into his head, the idea that he would never, ever succeed in making the Soul Society change their mind. Central 46 did not change their decisions.

What did  _he_  think about that? He had a staunch pro-Soul Society belief system, and Rukia had broken that system. She seemed to have resigned to her fate, and that was the way to do it.

But was it right? He did not know; he had spent forty years without speaking to her extensively. Had she changed in her time with the Soul Society? Had she become a criminal long before her crime of putting powers where they shouldn't be? Did she regret what she had done for that idiotic human with a death wish?

"I bet she wished that she had never done it now," he muttered to himself.

 _"Does she though?"_  asked a voice. He looked up to see the spirit of Zabimaru approaching him. The white-furred ape with a snake for a tail stood stoically. _"Does she regret saving his family?"_

Renji scoffed at Zabimaru's question. "Of course she does! Rukia does not want to die!"

_"How do you know what she wants?"_

The shinigami huffed, waving his hand to force Zabimaru back into his inner world. He sent out another pulse of reiatsu, potent enough to alert anything within a certain radius of him. He was trying to do it in such a way that no other shinigami would know but Ichigo.

When something pulsed in return, something he knew well enough, Renji stood up straight and prepared to draw his sword.

The instant that Ichigo Kurosaki appeared at the top of the stairs, slightly covered in makeshift bandages, Renji fought the urge to laugh.

"I suppose you can't heal from that very quickly, can you?" Renji called out, practically taunting him.

The human nearly growled in annoyance. "Get out of my way, Abarai. I'm on a tight schedule." The orange-haired shinigami-wannabe put a hand on the hilt of his sword, which was different from before.

Renji did not move, pulling his sunglasses out of the way of his face as the mist thinned out. "It's been a while. I wonder if you still remember my face."

"Oh, you'll be gone and forgotten soon enough," Ichigo replied, the threat heavy in the air with killing intent that he barely knew how to control. "But first I've got a whole mountain of payback to extract from you, Renji Abarai."

"Good luck with that. You look like you've been through hell."

"I'd go through five thousand hells to rescue Rukia!"

* * *

Chad was not one to complain about sewage, but it amused him to wonder how Uryu would act. Hanataro had led them into an underground network of tunnels that Squad Four used as supply routes as well as the sewage system.

The moment that they were far enough away from the opening they had left the surface from, Hanataro stopped them and began to heal both of their injuries, even though the Shiba was in much better shape than Chad.

Hanataro was actually really good with medical Kido, good enough with the techniques that it surprised him. His only real comparison he could make was with Orihime's healing ability, and it surprised Chad how fast the wound was already healing. Orihime's was efficient, taking care of pretty much any type of wound in a few short minutes. Hanataro was more focused, but it was equally good and fast.

"There," Hanataro finally said after almost ten minutes of deliberation with Chad's worst injuries on his right shoulder. "The wound should heal itself within the next thirty minutes. I jumpstarted your reishi reserves and created a temporary pathway, guided by my reiatsu, to ensure that most of your energy goes to healing that and healing that alone."

"Thank you, Yamada," Chad said gratefully. Smaller cuts and bruises had already begun to heal, the smaller abrasions already sealed up and scabbing. "You're impressive."

Hanataro sheepishly grinned. "It's no problem at all."

While Ganju received his own treatment, the Shiba finally asked the question that was on his mind. "So... why did you agree to help this Sakura person help us? What was in it for you? What is in it for her?"

Hanataro frowned, not sure how to respond. "Well, I do not want anyone to die. Not you, not the other Ryoka, not the other shinigami, not Rukia. If I can help save any one person, then I will. Bottom line."

"But what if that person has done something bad? Something criminal?"

Hanataro smiled. "I want criminals to get their justice, but I do not want justice to mean death for any reason. I joined the Squad shortly after Sakura did years ago, and she helped my views on the subject change from what they once were. Whatever the path of least death is, is the path that I take."

"So if you could choose the verdict, would you have Rukia imprisoned or some other punishment?" asked Chad.

Hanataro looked up, staring at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to Ganju. "I do not know. I think that Rukia made the right call, giving her powers to someone who could help save his family. I don't think she deserves to be punished at all, so I want to help you."

Chad listened to Hanataro explain how he knew Rukia, how he had been her caretaker while she was being held in the custody of Squad Six. The shinigami explained that Rukia had shared stories with Hanataro, of juice boxes and orange-haired teenagers that reminded her of red-headed lieutenants. He had become really close to her during his station there, and he believed that Rukia was a good person.

"She sounds like quite the person," added Ganju.

"She really is. I don't understand a lot of things about how all of this has happened, but I do know one thing. How can her brother, the Captain of Squad Six, be okay with this? How can Lieutenant Abarai be okay with this? They were the closest friends; they practically grew up together."

* * *

"Now! Roar, Zabimaru!"

In a flash of red light, Renji's blade changed before Ichigo's eyes into such an odd shape that he did not really know how to describe it. Renji extended the segmented blade, and it weaved through the air and clashed against Zangetsu.

Ichigo held up his zanpakutou, trying to stop himself from being pushed back with Renji's strength alone. He was so bewildered about the enemy's zanpakutou that he was not sure how to block it. Even if he had fought against it before.

 _I can't stop it!_  He shouted in his mind, pressing back against it but not finding any progress. Ichigo was slammed full force through a wall, and the pain of the impact was unbearable.

Renji retracted his Shikai as the cloud of debris spiraled out of the large hole in the wall. "You think just because you fought me once before, back there in the World of the Living, that now you know my true power!" Renji adjusted his sword, walking toward the place where Ichigo was trying to recover. "Well, let me tell you something, amateur! Whenever lieutenant-ranked or above shinigami are sent outside, severe limits are placed on our powers, so that we won't adversely affect the World of the Living."

Ichigo grimaced at the possibility, willing himself to stand but not having any success.

"My strength right now is five times what it was that first day we met, so no matter how confident you are, or how strong you become, there's still no way that you can defeat me!"

It took several seconds, but Ichigo managed to stand, gripping his blade out of the ground again. "I see." He walked out of the building, the billowing cloud of dust still rising from the hole. Renji was surprised that Ichigo had been able to get up again, more than anything else. "Then I suppose that means that that last attack of yours was your best shot." He placed his sword on his shoulders, hoping that the bloody wound on the right side of his head was not going to interrupt the battle. "Because that did not have any effect on me at all!"

Renji practically rolled his eyes; it was obvious that it had hurt him.

"So thank you. If all I have to worry about is eleven more like that one, then I think I'm going to be just fine, Renji!"

Renji took a step forward, face stretching in a probably insane grin. "I'm going to enjoy this."

* * *

The Squad One barracks were bustling with activity, people from all squads arriving there to file reports and explain the logistics of their day's work. The Ryoka had made it significantly busier, to the point of insanity for the poor Squad One officers who had to consolidate that information for every squad's benefit.

The meeting had ended over an hour ago, but some of the lieutenants were still milling about. Naruto was trying to get Momo to agree to go some place more private, so that they could talk out their issues, but she was avoiding the issue. He wondered if she even had had time to form a solid opinion, either yay or nay, but it was leaning toward the latter.

Izuru could tell something was going on between the couple, the tension obvious in the air. "I'm just going to head back. Make sure you let me know when you get that Kido fixed, will you?"

Momo nodded, but she was still confused and dazed by everything going on. She was worried about Renji, having picked up his abandoned lieutenants' badge earlier.

"I'm sure he's fine," Naruto explained as Kira left. "He just has not been a lieutenant for very long, so he probably forgot it. It doesn't mean anything more than that."

"Maybe not, but he left the meeting early," she replied. "He left it lying near the door to the outside. Why would he do that?"

Naruto wondered if she should tell someone, but she must have read his mind.

"No, I haven't told anyone. I was going to send a message to Captain Aizen about it, but I don't want Renji to be in trouble for something that I've said."

She had a meek expression, and Naruto could not help but see the comparison with his situation and hers. "Now, see. You understand what I'm going through."

"The situation is similar, but on an entirely different scale and you know it, Naruto."

He wanted to reply, but thought better of it. Too many prying ears and now was not really the best time. "Do you think he's worried about Rukia, and that's why he's been acting so strange? I mean, we all know how close they are."

"Maybe, I just don't get it. What would he have to hide? What's going on with him? I can't even imagine what it must feel like to almost lose the person that you're closest to." She looked up at Naruto, smiling lightly. "I... we'll talk later, okay?"

With a single Shunpo, Momo disappeared with Renji's badge in tow. Naruto knew he could follow if he wanted, but he let her disappear and have her space. It was dumb to anger her further, by crowding her and forcing her to talk about it if she did not want to.

* * *

Orihime could feel the fight going on. She could feel the fight happening in her bones, the large clashes of familiar spiritual pressure very familiar in her mind. She would always be able to pick Ichigo's presence out of a crowd, and it was clear to her that he was fighting someone powerful. She worried for him, but no matter how hard she tried, she would never be able to cover enough ground to reach him and help.

She kept moving, despite that, in Ichigo's direction. Always kept moving, sticking to the alleys and the unpopulated sections of the city. She had not used Santen Kesshun as a flying platform again, fearing that the glowing orange light would be far too easy a target. Orihime was confident that she could defend herself if someone fired a strong Kido, but she was not as confident in her ability to fight.

She had killed someone. Orihime had received encouragement from her Rikka, especially from Tsubaki about how it was the right option. They continued to try to speak to her, but Orihime eventually sealed them in their hairpin forms. They were being too loud as it was, and Orihime did not want to attract anyone else around.

Her healing power had been too weak to prevent death. Her control over her offensive power was not great enough to prevent death. Her defensive power was her most reliable, but even then, she knew it would only hold for minutes, at best. If she had an extended fight, what good would it do her?

So she kept quiet and her spiritual power at a bare minimum. The girl was trying to keep her thoughts productive, keep her thoughts confident and alert to the situation at hand, but the guilt ran into her like a freight train each time she rounded a corner. Each time the memory of Jirobo's disconnected body ran through her head, she had to fight not to vomit up her already empty stomach.

It would haunt her for the rest of her days. This entire invasion would haunt her for the rest of her days. Orihime knew she had contributed too much, much more than she ever thought she would. Ichigo and Chad and Uryu and Ganju were all out there, prepared to kill their opponent, and Orihime had no idea what had just happened. She truly did not comprehend the power it must have taken, the speed it must have taken, to kill one of the shinigami.

If her powers are a weapon of death, and that they are a reflection of her soul, then what did that say about her? She needed someone to explain it to her, to make her feel better, to absolve her of her guilt. But it would carry with her forever.

In anger, Orihime slammed a fist against the off-white wall next to her. The blood from her knuckles stained its pristine shine, and she scowled at the sight and the pain around her fingertips.

Ayame and Shun'o could heal that for her, but she decided that she did not need it. She would let it heal on its own, and if she was lucky, it would scar her. She would have a marking for her guilt, a physical manifestation of her first kill.

Would it be her last?

Honestly, she did not know. And that was... okay with her. If she was actively contributing toward the success of the mission, her more violent powers would still be good for that. And if she killed someone again, would the next scar be as prominent?

* * *

Ichigo closed his eyes briefly, using his large zanpakutou as a prop to remain standing. Blood covered the entire right side of his face, preventing him from seeing very well. Renji had spent the entire battle taking advantage of that blind spot, and it was only through sheer willpower that he was even still standing.

He panted and Renji watched in smug satisfaction. He probably thought that Ichigo was down for the count, and it would only take a few more blows from his zanpakutou to end their deadly game.

Ichigo knew it was his fault. He knew it was his fault that Rukia was in that tower, waiting to be killed. He knew that if she had never met him, he would be at home right now and his sisters would be fine. If he had controlled his presence as a human, long before he met Rukia, maybe he would not have grown to become a hollow magnet. Had she and the hollow not arrived that night, what would his life be like right now? What would her life be like right now?

Ichigo remembered his training from Urahara. He remembered Benehime and Urahara's killing intent surrounding it. He remembered how Urahara had tried to teach him how to harness his resolve, how to take that emotion and that willpower and contribute it to his overall powers. He remembered the smoking gash that Zangetsu and Benehime had carved into the earth, about how it stretched for nearly the entire length of the football field. He remembered, and that was enough for him.

He opened his eyes, swinging his sword slowly to rest it on his shoulders. Renji frowned, preparing to fight again because it was clear that Ichigo still had some fight left in him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Ichigo said. "I found my resolve." Renji's face changed to one of surprise when he witnessed Ichigo's eyes glow with power. "This time, I will get you!"

An aura of radiant blue flowed around Ichigo's body, flickering only slightly before expelling energy outward. Pure spiritual pressure diluted the area, wind flowing all around him as the energy rolled off of him in waves. He did not move a muscle, letting all that he had left in his spiritual reserves out into the atmosphere, pointed directly at Renji Abarai.

The lieutenant was watching deliberately, but Ichigo was no longer fluctuating wildly. The human's power was radiating in Renji's direction, and it was so potent that the shinigami was having a hard time deflecting it with a layer of his own.

Ichigo lurched into action, jumping high above his opponent. Renji did not catch his movement initially, but instead aimed his zanpakutou at Ichigo in the air. The orange-haired swordsmen rolled out of the way, landing to the right of Renji and slashing outward.

_When you counter, don't let him cut you!_

Zabimaru snaked through the air, cutting alongside Ichigo's blade to block the swing. The human held the blade with one hand on the hilt and one on the dull side near the top, sparks flying around them as the metallic weapons collided with great power.

He pushed off at the last moment, Zabimaru flinging wildly away before Renji could get back his control. Ichigo remembered why he was here, remembered his reason for coming and for braving these impossible odds.

_When you protect someone, don't let em die!_

Spiritual power gathered around his sword, flowing off of it in waves of blue light and whistling wind. "When you attack him, kill!"

Renji was astounded by the sheer volume of the attack, shocked enough that when he moved the hilt in the direction of the attack, his sword instantly shattered as the attack hit home in a dazzling explosion of blue light and spiritual power.

The lieutenant was thrown from the ground, thrown from the force of Ichigo's attack. He collided with the ground twice, like a stepping stone, before landing hard against an upturned piece of building debris. His hair was wild, the tie having come undone in the assault. The blood splattered against the ground beneath him, spreading from the large and deep cut along his shoulder and chest.

He looked up as he fell back against the rock, unable to move. A destructive crater carved out of the ground from Ichigo's attack, like some kind of small canyon separated the two of them. The opponent was standing at the end of it, panting from the effort of using that attack.

Renji screamed in agony and defeat, and Ichigo stood still, trying to recover from the power he had just used up.

* * *

Chad knew the instant that Ichigo won. His sensing was not as good as it could have been, but he just knew. Ichigo had fought twice and had won both times, against opponents who were only getting stronger as time went on.

They were now moving in the sewer, heading toward the white tower of the Senzaikyu, where Rukia was being held. Hanataro had offered to help guide them there, so that they could save her.

"It looks like your friend won, the one with the huge reiatsu signature," Hanataro commented. "He is the one that Rukia referred to in her stories, isn't he?"

Chad nodded. "Ichigo Kurosaki. He's the strongest of our group. The rest of us are almost nothing in comparison."

Ganju clapped his hand on Chad's back. "Don't sell yourself short. You, the princess, and the archer kid are powerful in your own ways. And you've fought very tough opponents yourself!"

Chad did not feel like it sometimes, but he did not comment. Hanataro, Ganju, and the human continued toward their destination, all hoping that Ichigo would continue his string of victories.

* * *

Uryu was thankful that everything seemed to be going well with their group. Everyone was still alive, and Ichigo had just won the fight of his life. Orihime and Chad had both won their own conflicts, and Uryu actually felt like he was not pulling his own weight.

He was glad they were all safe.

Uryu passed through an empty courtyard of sorts, not too far from the Senzaikyu. He knew where Rukia was being held after stealing the information from a group of Squad Ten shinigami. He supposed that it would be easier for them to all try to meet up there to fight their way in and rescue her, but it was only a matter of time before Ichigo or one of the others ran his mouth and told them all of their plan. Uryu had tried to procure the information in his own way, by tricking them into telling it, and then knocking the men unconscious. He liked his system better.

Something changed around him, something very odd. It only took him seconds to call forth his bow, the blue glow shimmering on his white uniform. He tried to feel out the reiatsu around him, finding several spirit ribbons and realizing that he was surrounded.

When the first of the men dashed out of the shadows, dressed head to foot in black gear that reminded him of an old ninja movie and carrying a short sword, Uryu realized that something was very, very wrong. He released the arrow, and the shinigami moved expertly out of the way, continuing toward him.

Uryu leaped into the air with Hirenyaku, flashing out of sight in the hopes that he would get out of the way so that he could take out multiple targets in only a few shots. It was only when the ninja-like shinigami used Shunpo to catch up with him that he scoffed.

"Figures that you'd be fast," he muttered, realizing that from his grandfather's stories, these were members of the Stealth Force. "Damn it."

He sped back to the ground, quickly enough that at least a few of them were surprised, and fired another quick shot into the contingent of shinigami above him. One was struck through the chest to the right of his heart, and Uryu almost grinned.

Two more shots soon followed, cutting into the ankle of one of his assailants and knocking the wakizashi from the hand of another.

He let off an entire volley of less powerful arrows, hoping to catch them off guard with more speed and quality, but the pursuers either blocked them or dodged them.

"You sure are skilled," Uryu muttered.

"They have to be," a voice behind him declared. Uryu looked up to see a petite woman with short dark hair and a captain's white haori. "I'll have no one but the best. It's a shame I can't kill you, but I've struck a deal with one of my colleagues. And I never go back on them!"

With a simple move of her fingers, the group of almost seven shinigami headed after him, flashing in and out of sight to keep up with his own speed. It took Uryu several seconds to realize that he was never going to get away without doing something drastic. He poured as much energy as he could into the next arrow, firing into the sky.

"That was pathetic!" the captain said, laughing. Uryu smirked and caused the arrow to split, returning to the ground in a volley of twenty-or-more blue missiles of reishi.

He managed to take out two with that trick, an arrow through the base of the neck of one and an arrow through the hip of another. The captain did not even move out of the way of the arrows, fending them off with her spiritual pressure alone.

"Well, that was a nasty trick, Quincy."

"I don't have to fight fair against you, shinigami."

Uryu was going to quip back and then fire at the captain herself, probably against his better judgment, when someone chopped him on to the base of his neck. He fell to the ground instantly, wishing that he could fight through the oncoming unconsciousness.

"Neither do I," muttered the captain of the Stealth Force, never having moved once in the entire fight.

* * *

Ichigo was shocked at what he was hearing, knowing more and more about Rukia and Renji with every word. The lieutenant shared the story of their childhood, of their time in the Academy. He explained that Rukia joined the Kuchiki clan, was adopted into it and forbidden to speak to someone like Renji again.

Renji staggered toward Ichigo, through all the blood and the pain, and gripped the front of the human's shihakusho.

"All this time, I've been blaming you for the fact that Rukia has been imprisoned. Every time I thought of you, it made my blood boil! But I was wrong. It wasn't you." Renji's fist began to shake, unable to stay steady. "It was me from the start, because I didn't stop Rukia from going to the Kuchikis! I didn't want her to go, but I never imagined that if she did, she'd end up being a condemned criminal! I thought she'd find happiness! I really did! How could I have ever known?" Ichigo listened in stunned silence. "But I wanted so badly to surpass Captain Kuchiki for taking Rukia from me! From the first day I saw him, I trained with that thought in mind. But even to this day, not once have I been able to beat him!"

Ichigo could definitely sympathize with him. "He's just too strong. As much as I wanted to, I just did not have the strength to get Rukia back that way!" The lieutenant stared into the gaze of his former opponent. "So Ichigo! I'm swallowing all of my shame and my pride and I'm asking you to save Rukia! Will you promise? I'm begging you! Will you save her!?"

Renji was sobbing now, begging and pleading for him to help. Ichigo waited a moment, trying to process what he had heard, before he finally said, "Yes."

Whatever kind of tension that Renji had fell away, and with that, so did his ability to stand. The lieutenant let go of Ichigo's front, falling down as the pain overtook him. Ichigo could not stand any longer either, falling beside him. He managed to stay awake long enough to hear footsteps approaching, and the appearance of a brown cloak over a shihakusho standing next to him, lifting him off of the ground and calling his name.

* * *

"It's Renji," explained Izuru, looking over the unconscious and wounded lieutenant lying on the ground of the Squad Six barracks. "If I had only gotten there sooner, I could have fought alongside him and this never would have happened."

Momo stood there, tears gathering in her eyes as she saw her longtime friend lying there, wounds all over his features. She realized that she never, ever wanted to see Naruto in a similar situation, nearly fighting for his life. It took some of the sting away of their current issues, to be reminded that life is not always long enough to iron out all the struggles and come back to normal.

"Don't blame yourself, Izuru. None of this is your fault," she explained, wondering if she should call Naruto just to have him there as support.

"Renji!" shouted a voice, and Momo's face lit up when she saw Naruto approaching. "Kira, thanks for letting me know about this. Is he all right?"

"He should be after we get him some medical attention," explained Kira. "I don't believe that he is in any serious danger at the moment, but he will if we do not act soon. I'll put in the call for the emergency relief team."

The spiky-haired blond lieutenant came to Momo's side, putting a hand on her shoulder. She did appreciate the gesture, but the very thought of what had happened was still reacting in her mind. She eventually pulled away, kneeling beside Renji.

"That is out of the question."

The Squad Six captain arrived without warning, standing with his back turned to them and looking out of the window. "I want Renji taken to prison."

"What?" asked Naruto, shocked that he would go so far. "You can't be serious, Captain?"

"Do not question me, Uzumaki," Kuchiki declared, and Naruto could feel the killing intent radiating off of the captain's glare alone.

"But Renji's been badly hurt fighting one of the Ryoka all by himself! He needs treatment!" Hinamori exclaimed, trying to get him to agree.

"Then I'm afraid he'll die," explained the captain, not letting any emotion or care show in his voice. "It was his choice to enter that fight alone. In such a situation, a defeat is forbidden. I have no use for a fool who does not understand that."

"Have you no compassion for your subordinates?!" shouted Naruto, getting more and more angry at the very possibility of Byakuya allowing Renji to die.

"I have no compassion for those who do not follow the rules of the system, because the system is all that keeps us from becoming vile creatures like hollows," Byakuya stated. "The very sight of him offends me." And with that, the captain turned and started to walk out of the room. "Take him away!"

Momo shared a look with Naruto before she clenched her fist, realizing then and there that she understood completely what Naruto was going through. "How dare you! Is that how you treat your men? Renji's-"

Kira put his hand in front of her, stopping her from continuing. After another moment, he bowed to the captain. "A thousand pardons, sir. They both did not mean it."

Naruto started to shout, "The hell I didn't!" but he refrained when he saw the look on Momo's eyes. He bowed as well, confirming his apology. Momo repeated after them, and Byakuya walked out of the room.

"I'm so sorry, but we have to follow orders," Izuru said, to both of them.

"Do we?" asked Naruto, very serious with his question. "Do we have to follow them? Because these orders we've been having to follow lately are pissing me off."

Izuru was surprised by his brazen attitude. "This is not like you, Naruto. Are you-"

"No, I'm fine. This situation isn't, but I'll follow like a good little dog. Where's the holding cell?" As Naruto moved to help get Renji to some place where he could be put under custody, Momo shook her head.

"But Renji will die if we don't do something!" Naruto enjoyed this side of her, because she was finally seeing just how right he was.

"He's cold as ice, isn't he?" Everyone turned at the new voice, revealing the white-haired captain with a fox-like grin. "Makes you wonder if he even has a heart inside him, doesn't it? He's one scary guy for sure, that captain of Squad Six."

"Captain Ichimaru!" Momo said, bowing lightly. The others followed her, and Izuru seemed to brighten up at the sight of his captain.

The captain walked toward them. "But don't worry about Renji. I'll call in Squad Four so that you won't get in trouble."

Naruto smiled at the possibility. "You'd do that, really?" asked Momo.

"Absolutely. It's no problem at all." Gin started to head toward the door to make the call, gesturing to Kira to follow. The fox-like captain shot an interesting grin towards Naruto.

"Thank you, Captain Ichimaru."

"Yeah, thanks."

Renji was still unconscious, but both Naruto and Momo stood with almost an awkward silence.

"My my, Renji is in bad shape, isn't he?" Naruto and Momo were startled at the appearance of Toshiro, who was literally the third captain to drop in unannounced like that.

"Lil'Shiro!" shouted Momo, surprised to see the silver-haired child prodigy.

Toshiro rolled his eyes. "Come on, can't you remember your manners? Captain Hitsugaya. How hard is that?"

"Well, I'm probably never going to stop calling you that," Naruto muttered, clapping the boy-like captain on the back. "Sorry, but it's not going to happen. You could join the Royal Guard for all I care, and I'd still call you Lil'Shiro."

"Whatever you say, Uzumaki," Captain Hitsugaya said, smirking.

"What are you doing here anyway?" asked Momo, confused as to why he was travelling alone. Most captains never travelled without their lieutenants. "Where's your lieutenant?"

"Never mind about that now," said Toshiro. "I've come to warn you both. Be wary of Squad Three. Specifically Ichimaru, but don't leave anyone in Three without suspicion. Something odd is going on, something more than the Ryoka."

"Well, when it rains, it pours," Naruto said, rolling his eyes about the possibility of there being another layer to this mess.

"I wish I could give you more specifics. Just be careful."

Momo was mystified and confused as to what to think. She did not know how to take the news, but she would not forget it.

"We will."

The captain seemed to switch his tune, turning to the both of them. "Now, are you done fighting? Because both of you have come to me asking for advice about something going on, and I don't want to see you both get hurt. I also don't want to meddle, so please, don't be specific with me right now."

Naruto looked at her expectantly, wondering if she was still upset with him. She seemed to meet his gaze, holding it for a few seconds, before looking away. "I'm not angry right now. Just disappointed."

Naruto's entire heart sunk. Toshiro could not wish to be anywhere else more than at that moment. He was glad that he had a captain's meeting.

* * *

Ichigo awoke that night with the stunning feeling that someone was pressing into his chest cavity with their bare fingers. He shot up, and was promptly smacked back down with a surprisingly rough level of strength.

"Stay down, idiot, or you'll reopen all of your wounds," explained a voice. He looked up, with less groggy eyes, to see a pink-haired woman standing over him. He recognized her as Sakura, the shinigami from Squad Four who helped Chad and Orihime learn how to fight.

"Sakura? What are you doing here?"

She sighed. "What does it look like I'm doing? Feel like I'm doing?"

He sighed. "But aren't you risking a lot by doing this?"

"Yeah, but what else is new? Someone has to make sure that you idiots don't get yourselves killed. I just have to hope that this cloak that Urahara gave me manages to do its job and prevent anyone from locating us. If Captain Unohana were to find me right now, I think I'd kill myself just so that I wouldn't have to deal with her gaze."

It was supposed to be a joke, but Ichigo did not laugh.

"Okay, so maybe that would have been more effective if you knew who Unohana was." She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity, before activating another healing Kido and pressing into the wound again, causing Ichigo to wince.

"Thank you," he said, truthfully. "It means a lot to me that you want to help."

Sakura nodded simply. "You're welcome. Now, I got to ask. What is this?" She held up a white skull mask with red markings over the right eye, and he could not help but notice the similarity with a hollow mask.

"Um... where was that?"

"In your uniform," she muttered, pointing to the crack in the top of it. "It looks like it might have been the only thing that prevented you from ending up like Renji."

"Is he dead?" asked Ichigo suddenly, so sudden that Sakura faked whiplash.

"Not as far as I know. I got you out of there the minute the fight was over. He was still alive when I left, but I don't know for how long, if someone did not come to get him."

Ichigo frowned, considering it. The mask lay forgotten on the ground.

"You did really well, from what I can tell. All of you are. I sent Hanataro to find Chad and Ganju, to help them heal. Orihime won a fight earlier today and has been heading towards the Senzaikyu and you. I have not seen anything from Uryu, though, after earlier in the day."

"Thanks. I'm sure that they are all fine."

"Don't mention it. Why don't you get some more sleep? When you wake up, we'll try to get you moving again."

Sakura cast a quick Kido, forcing him to sleep, as she continued working on his injuries.

* * *

The scream. The scream woke him up, and it probably would have woken anyone up within the vicinity. The sun was just beginning to rise, and Naruto could barely comprehend the fact that he had fallen asleep on the Squad Six couches, in full view of Renji's sleeping form. He was late for a meeting by the check of the time on the wall.

There was another scream, perforated by a pulse of her reiatsu, and Naruto was now fully awake.

"Momo!"


	19. Dawn of a Different Level

Naruto blasts toward the source of the scream, flashing at full speed to find Momo. Something was wrong, something awful was happening, and he had to stop it. Before someone lost their lives as a result.

The moment he found the corpse with his eyes, a trail of blood streaking down the wall and filling his nose with the scent of death, his body almost buckled beneath him. The stress of everything going on was nearly too great to withstand, and now Captain Aizen was pinned to the white wall with a zanpakutou.

Naruto had never wanted the man to die, but he could not say he had ever liked him. Kusaritane was trying to soothe his worries and his concern in that brief moment of realization, but it had not hit him.

He looked away from the body, trying not to think about it or anything else. Lieutenants Hisagi, Matsumoto, Kira, and Hinamori were there, looking up at the dead man in shock.

"Captain Aizen!" Momo screeched at the top of her lungs, loud enough that literally everyone would hear it.

"That's... impossible!" Kira muttered, hair covering the left half of his face.

Momo started to walk toward it, her shock sincere on her face, and Naruto reached out to touch her shoulder. She never looked toward him, shrugging away his hand and continuing toward the body.

"He can't be dead. He can't be. You can't be..." She fell to the ground, tears streaming down her face. Naruto was speechless, uncertain of how to respond, how to console her. "Captain Aizen!"

"What's all this racket so early in the morning?"

Everyone turned to the source, and Captain Ichimaru stood behind them all, the smug grin never leaving his face.

"Oh, that. Yes, it's certainly a tragedy."

Naruto's mind raced, realizing very quickly that something was amiss. Toshiro's warning rang clear in his head, and by the expression on Momo's face, it seemed that she remembered it as well.

In the next instant, the Squad Five lieutenant screamed, "It was  _you!_ " She ran toward the captain, drawing her sword and holding it at an angle ready to swing.

Far too many thoughts raced through Naruto's head, all at the same time, and all of them about Momo. In one instant, both Kira and Naruto moved at the same time. Kira blocked Momo's strike, moving in with amazing speed to counter her blade. Naruto held up a hand, acting out of pure instinct and protection of Momo. "Bakudo Number One: Sai!"

The instant that the spell hit, both Kira and Hinamori fell to the ground on their knees, their weapons drawn behind them. Gin smirked even harder as Momo whipped her head around, looking over her shoulder with disgust and with tears streaming down her face.

Naruto nearly dropped the spell out of pure guilt, but when Kira started trying to power through it with pure reiatsu, Naruto had to counter it with his own and strengthen the spell. Both Momo and Kira were now sprawling on the ground, their backs to the stone.

"Why? Why would you do this?" Momo repeated again and again. "Naruto! Why?"

"I... don't want you or Kira to get hurt."

"Let me make my own choices!" Hinamori screamed, and the blonde lieutenant's hand wavered. "He's a murderer, Naruto! Let me go! Let me avenge my captain's death!"

"I can't let you make that mistake, can't let you go down that same path." The guilt was staggering, but Naruto held firm. Everyone, even Iba, watched the scene with shock and worry for Naruto and Momo's relationship. They had been the talk of the Soul Society for years, and so many gossip reports had been written about them in the Shinigami Women's Association Newsletter. Rangiku could barely believe her eyes as she saw their relationship tested.

"My, my, this is an interesting development," Gin stated. "Trouble on the rocks, I see?" The man laughed, before walking away as though nothing had ever happened.

She screamed, a sudden burst of spiritual pressure arising within her. "Snap, Tobiume! Reflect!" Her zanpakutou glowed with a brilliant pink light and changed shape, becoming a blade with branch-like prongs. There was another flash of light, and everything around Momo exploded, the force hitting both Kira and Naruto and knocking off his concentration from the spell.

Smoke filled the air as wind and fire violently rushed away from her, and she leaped out of the area of effect and swung once more, sending a pink ball of scorching flames toward Gin's retreating form. The captain laughed under his breath, threw out a hand, and deflected the zanpakutou's energy attack. The wall nearly fifty yards away from him exploded, not far from where Aizen's corpse watched over them all.

"How dare you release your zanpakutou, Momo? You must not confuse public and private matters!" Kira shouted, brandishing his zanpakutou and watching both Naruto and Momo with trepidation. "You leave me no choice but to eliminate you for attacking my captain! Raise your head, Wabisuke!"

The rectangular hook-like blade appeared in Izuru's hands, a dark blue flash of light shining around him. The lieutenant leaped into the air, and Momo's reiatsu strengthened into a bright red aura around herself as she prepared to counter.

Naruto moved at the last moment, intercepting the two striking blades with his own and upping his spiritual pressure to levels he had not used in quite some time, the force enough to stop both of them in their tracks and physically push them back. Orange light flickered around him, the stones cracking beneath his feet and the air thickening.

Why don't you let me out, kit? I'll show 'em who they should fear!

 _"There's not enough time in the world to tell you all the reasons that that won't work,"_  Naruto replied, ignoring the fox's rebuttals.

"No. This is not going to continue." Naruto stared directly into Momo's eyes, pleading her not to try to attack again.

Captain Hitsugaya had just arrived, his familiar spiritual pressure fluctuating. "Lieutenants Kira and Hinamori, back away now. Place both of them under arrest, now."

"But Toshiro-"

The silver-haired captain turned to her, silencing her with a look. Matsumoto grabbed Hinamori from behind, preventing her escape. Hisagi mimicked the Squad Ten lieutenant, taking Kira under her arms. "Momo, at a time like this, you take up arms against your own, especially when your first priority should have been to take Captain Aizen's body down from there?"

She visibly shook with adrenaline, but she had not considered that.

"I will report this incident to the Head Captain. Get them both out of my sight. Lock them both up."

Naruto watched in silence as the two of them were carted away by the other lieutenants. He took a deep, calming breath, looking up at the body on the tower's wall.

"Thank you, Squad Ten Captain. Sorry you had to waste your time on one of mine," Gin stated, looking at the child-like shinigami in gratitude. "And to you as well, Lieutenant Uzumaki, for being willing to sacrifice your own personal feelings in order to protect me."

Naruto looked at him threateningly. "I did not do it for you. I did it for her!"

"Of course," he explained. "I suppose stopping her from killing me was a smart plan, because if she had succeeded in laying a finger on me, I am not sure that I would have been able to contain myself."

The threat permeated the silence, and Naruto's rage was strengthening.

Toshiro did not even bother looking in the direction of his fellow captain. "You know, Gin, I believe that, just now, you  _were_  about to kill Momo. And I think you would have finished the job, regardless if she managed to hit you or not."

"Now, whatever could you be talking about?" asked Gin. "I'm not hardly as ruthless as you might think."

"Play innocent if you like," Toshiro began, before turning to look at Gin with every bit of killing intent he could muster, "but I'll tell you this. If you allow Momo's blood to be spilled, I promise you that Naruto and I will take turns killing you."

Naruto could not agree more. "After we kill you the first time, we'll find your reincarnated soul and kill it again. Don't you _dare_  touch a single hair on her head."

"Oh, how scary," he stated. "But I suggest that you keep an eye on her. You don't want any misfortune to befall her. She seems to be... unstable, and quite frankly, far more dangerous than little old me. Irrational people do irrational things."

The tense moment was broken when several unseated shinigami from various squads arrived.

"What's going on here?"

"Oh! Is that Captain Aizen?"

"What happened to him?"

Captain Hitsugaya turned to them. "Get the captain's body down immediately."

The shinigami moved to nod, but Naruto shook his head. "No, I'll do it, Toshiro."

_I'll do it for her._

* * *

Uryu's eyes fluttered awake, head groggy and pain shooting up and down his right arm. He was strapped to a cold metal surface, tubes and wires running along the arm, connected to the Sanrei Glove and piercing into his flesh.

He screamed, struggling to look around at anything but the too-bright circular lamp above him. Most of the room was shrouded in shadow, and he could not make any details of anything but the computer screen showing his vitals to his right.

"I see you're awake," said a soft voice, her owner appearing from behind him to stand at his right, hand resting on the medical table. "I'll have to make sure to adjust the sedative. The process of removing the glove will not be pleasant for you if we do not."

Uryu grimaced as she adjusted the IV dripping into his arm. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"My name is Nemu Kurotsuchi, Lieutenant of Squad Twelve. You are inside the Shinigami Research and Development Institute," explained the strange woman with the calm face. She seemed to notice his efforts to raise his spiritual pressure by gathering reishi using the glove. "I promise you that will not work. We have deadened the nerve endings associated with your connection to the glove. It was easy for my master to do, for he knows more about Quincy anatomy than anyone else."

Uryu gasped, terrified the more and more he learned about his situation. "What do you want from me?" He was desperate to stay awake, desperate to prevent the sedative from knocking him under again. He needed to get out of there, needed to escape, but he could not move his hands enough to do anything productive.

Nemu seemed to be surprised by his question. "What do  _I_  want from you? I do not  _want_ anything. I only want my master to be happy."

Uryu wanted to plead, wanted to beg to escape. His head was getting lighter by the second, and after another brief struggle, his muscles relaxed as his mind collapsed into unconsciousness.

* * *

"This is it," Hanataro explained, pointing to the hatch above them. "This is the closest I can get you to the Senzaikyu from the sewers."

"Thank you very much, Hanataro," Chad stated, smiling as he prepared to head up the ladder.

"Why are ya saying it like that, Chad? Hanataro's coming with us."

The shinigami timidly agreed. "Yes. O-of course I am."

The three of them headed out of the manhole access hatch, as soon as they made sure that the coast was clear. Hanataro led the group, an extra pep in his step after he took a special energy pill, and the white tower was in sight, high above where they were.

After a long moment, the man turned to the two younger companions. "How do you think the others are doing?"

Chad was not sure, the more he considered it. He had not felt their presence for a long time, but he was not worried. Chad would just instinctively know if something happened to them.

"I'm sure they are fine, but I can't feel them. I haven't been able to for a long time, but I'm not the best at this."

Hanataro looked back at both of them. "I wish I knew what they were like. Maybe I could help you; there are a few Kido I can try to boost my spiritual senses?"

Chad shook his head. "No, there's no time. If we stopped to do that, we might lose our advantage."

Ganju agreed. "Yeah, the kid's right. I've seen that spell in action, and it takes a bit of time to prepare. We're probably better o-"

Immediately, the area was hit with several intense reiatsu, and the human felt the pressure bearing down on him, attacking his shoulders and joints and everything in between. It was as though the air had thickened, as though gravity itself had gotten more powerful, and Chad was the only one of the two of them that could actually keep moving.

Hanataro had hit the ground hard, shouting in exasperation as though the air itself had stopped allowing him to breathe. Ganju moved back to him, putting a hand on his shoulder and taking some of the edge off. They still had to finish climbing the staircase.

"How... how is this possible? Is this... even a person?" asked Ganju, shocked as he pulled Hanataro to his feet. Chad moved back, the pressure slowly getting easier to withstand, and he nearly activated his arm just to cut through the pressure surrounding them.

"I don't know, but we have to keep moving." Chad felt something heavy, something being battered by the energy near the top of the stairs, and he knew immediately. "Ichigo is in trouble!"

* * *

Naruto paced outside the hallway, knowing that he should be with his squad. Sentaro and Kiyone could handle it for a little while, but he felt guilty. Captain Ukitake was out of commission, and it was up to him to take care of the Squad's affairs. But he was delegating that to the two Third Seats lately, and that just wasn't right.

He kept up appearances, but he had not really been focused on Squad duties for a lot longer than just the current situation. His mind had been scattered, and he had spent a lot of time in the World of the Living, even if he shouldn't. Most of the time, it was on Squad business, coordinating Squad Thirteen's area assignments and making sure that everyone was doing their job, especially on the longer term assignments. Had he visited Karakura Town during this whole ordeal much sooner, could he have stopped Rukia from giving away her powers to the Ryoka boy now causing a lot of trouble for everyone?

He told himself constantly that it was stupid to blame himself, that it was stupid to think he should hold all the guilt. But Rukia was about to die, and he had a hand in that. He needed to do something about what was going on, but now, everything else was happening too. Momo was imprisoned, awaiting punishment for attempting to attack Gin and getting into a fight with Kira. She was pissed off at him already, for lying to her, but now she was even more angry that he had stopped her from getting her revenge for Aizen's death.

Naruto stared at his hand, realizing that he still had the man's blood under his fingernails. He made a mental note to wash it off later, but moving the body had been an almost cathartic experience for him.

The door opened, and a guard exited the room. "You can go in, but you only have three minutes."

Naruto nodded, realizing that that rule made absolutely zero sense. He figured that if he wanted to, he could break that rule, but she probably did not want to speak to him for very long anyway.

The moment that he opened the door, Momo's tearful face looked up and turned to one of anger and frustration. She immediately stood up from the mat on the floor, turned with purpose, and sat down again. She was now with her back to him, literally giving him the cold shoulder.

"Naruto, do you understand what the word 'hypocritical' means?" She sucked in a heavy breath, wiping her face with her sleeve.

"Um... yeah. But li-"

"No, I won't listen to you. You're going to listen to me, and you're going to listen to me now," she explained, cutting him off. He nodded, even though she was turned away from him.

"Naruto, I understand everything that is happening." She paused, trying to find the right words. Naruto could tell that she was being purposefully vague. "I understand why you did what you did. I understand your motivation. But stopping me from doing essentially the same thing is hypocritical!

"You protected her, acted outside of your parameters! You risked yourself to give her more time, and that did a lot of good, didn't it?" Momo turned and stared at him, gesturing with every word. Naruto was rapt, listening intently and feeling more and more guilty with each syllable. "Why would you stop me from taking the same risk, from acting outside of  _my_  parameters, to avenge my captain? Why can't I do the same thing you are doing by protecting Rukia?"

He sighed. "I know it's hypocritical. I got myself in a terrible, terrible mess, because I want those Ryoka to win and save her. I don't know what to do, or who to side with, if the time came to actually fight one of them." He paced back and forth, hoping that no one was listening because that would be bad for both of them. "I did not want you to be in the same position, Momo. I don't know if Ichimaru is actually the culprit behind Aizen's murder, but I... don't think that attacking him would be a good idea." She was about to argue, but he raised a hand. "I'm not saying that because you aren't strong enough, Momo. I'm only saying that because Gin Ichimaru is an insane, manipulative prodigy who could probably come up with a strategy to take out Yamamoto if he wanted to.

"All of that is besides the point, though, Momo. Because I don't want you to die. I don't want you to die from him, and I don't want you to die from the Central 46 giving out another unnecessary execution order," Naruto explained.

She shook her head in exasperation. "You took away my agency, Naruto. You took away my ability to control my own actions and make my own decisions." Tears welled up in her eyes again, but she turned away to sit on the floor, staring at the small window. "I deserve that right."

* * *

Ichigo could hardly believe what he was seeing, what he was feeling. Two oppressive figures stood in front of him, stopping him from continuing towards the white tower where Rukia was being held. The human was having trouble moving, and the heavy gelatin-like air thick with spiritual pressure.

It was the greatest power he had ever felt, had ever encountered. More powerful than Samui. More powerful than Renji. More powerful than the brief taste he had of Byakuya's reiatsu, the night that Rukia was taken.

There were two shinigami in white haori blocking his path. One of whom was incredibly tall, probably nine feet, with enough musculature to match. He was wearing heavy arm bracers and shoulders over his shihakusho, but the most defining feature was the helmet resting on his head, completely covering his face and only leaving a thin strip for vision.

Ichigo was not focused on him, however, because the source of the huge reiatsu was the other man, covered in scars and wearing an eyepatch. His hair extended outward in spikes, tiny bells attached to the ends. His sword at his hip, Ichigo could feel the oppressive killing intent.

"Oh, what  _are_  you doing anyway?" asked the helmeted man to his comrade. "Why are you trying to overwhelm him before he gets a chance to fight back?"

The other captain scoffed. "He's the strongest one of the Ryoka. If he can't handle this, he and his friends don't even deserve to be here. He probably got lucky on a fluke and took out your Third Seat and Abarai."

Ichigo could not even reply, but his anger was spreading. He tried to release his own spiritual pressure, but it was far too out of his control to actually be effective. Nevertheless, the helmeted captain seemed intrigued.

"That's quite a bit of power for someone like you. I can see how you defeated Samui, but you do not have a chance against me or him if that is the extent to your strength."

"Trust me, this isn't all I can do," explained Ichigo, pushing his spiritual pressure away from his body. He imagined that it was like he was a drop of water surrounded by a huge pool of oil, unable to do much against his surroundings. He managed to become stable enough to move, and when he made a motion for his sword, the captain with the eyepatch smirked.

"Now we're talking. I was afraid that you'd be totally worthless after all." That captain drew his own sword, but the other stopped him from moving forward.

"Come now, Kenpachi, do I not have more of a reason to fight him than you? He defeated my subordinate."

The ragged captain, Kenpachi, thought for a moment, seemingly considering the request. "Hmmm. Nope."

Ichigo flinched as the man swung his sword, despite the distance between them. The power rippling through the air smashed against the stone beneath them, bits and pieces of the earth blasted apart with one swing. The human leaped away from the blast, swiping the bandages away from Zangetsu in preparation.

"What kind of sword technique is that?" he asked, wondering why it was similar to his own, but without the light show.

"Hmm. I believe it is called a 'cut' in some circles," Kenpachi replied, putting his somewhat misshapen blade behind his shoulder.

"Haha, smartass. I was asking you what your zanpakutou did to cause that."

Kenpachi swung again, and Ichigo had throw up his blade to counteract the force of his sword, but not the actual blade itself. When a cut appeared on his chest, despite the fact that their swords were nowhere near each other, Ichigo frowned.

"So you use the air as an extension of your blade," the human said, sure of it now. That was the only way that he could have still reached him. "That's your zanpakutou ability. Samui was pretty close to that, she was a little more flashy though."

Kenpachi grinned. "You're dead wrong, kid. Stop using your brain and start using your muscles. I'm getting a little bit bored here, and I don't want to kill you just yet."

* * *

The moment that they reached the top of the stairs, Chad peeked his head over the last one. A hundred yards away, three shinigami stood, swords drawn and prepared for battle at any moment. Chad knew immediately that he had found the orange-haired shinigami with an oversized meat cleaver for a zanpakutou.

"Oh no, it's Captain Kenpachi Zaraki and Captain Komamura!" Hanataro said, more visibly affected by the clashing spiritual pressures of the captains ahead. "Two captains at once! There's no way that Ichigo can handle both, if he can handle one at all!"

Chad gulped, the white haori a symbol of their power. The helmeted shinigami was not engaged in the fight, but was watching both sides intently. The actual captain fighting was apparently strong enough to effect the terrain around him, without actively touching the terrain with his sword.

"How is he doing that?" asked Ganju, asking the moment that Captain Zaraki sliced through the air and causing the ground around him to rumble and crack.

"His power alone. The strength of his spiritual pressure," explained Hanataro. "He does not need the zanpakutou in his hand to do that kind of damage."

The moment that Chad realized that Ichigo was in over his head was the moment that Chad decided that he would help, regardless of what was happening. Ganju and Hanataro would not see it coming and would probably assume that he would stay back, but he had to do something.

The Mexican teen dashed forward, relying on as much speed as possible. Green light seemed to form around his feet, and he leaped into the air like the ground was a trampoline giving him a boost. Immediately, he summoned his right arm, the black and red material forming like liquid running down his arm. Energy poured into his shoulder, flowing out of the armored arm. "El Directo!"

A blue white energy wave extended toward Captain Zaraki, blasting toward him like a blue comet streaking at the ground. In the last instant, Kenpachi lazily held up an arm, and the attack collided with him.

Smoke filled the air around the fighters, and Ichigo shot back to catch up. "Chad? Are you crazy?! This guy's a captain!"

"I should ask you the same question," Chad stated, panting as he tried to recover from the energy loss.

The debris dissipated, revealing that Captain Zaraki did not have a single scratch on him. Smoke billowed off of him in waves, before he pulsed his spiritual pressure once and scattered all the debris from the attack into the wind.

"An interesting attack, but I've seen better," he muttered, before pointing at Chad. "If that's the best you've got, then you should stay back. I don't want to fight someone who is not a challenge."

"Yay! Kenny! Ichi and Army-arm are going to die!" shouted a voice. Chad turned to see a young girl with pink hair and a lieutenant's badge, standing on the sidelines.

Chad wanted to prepare another attack, but Ichigo cut him off. "Chad, take Ganju and Hanataro and go. We're so close already. I wish I had more time to catch up with you, but I can take this guy."

Chad knew that the human-turned-shinigami was overly optimistic, but he knew more than anyone here that Ichigo could handle himself. The problem was that this was a captain he was fighting, and there was no guarantee that Captain Komamura would not get involved.

"Go! Stop hesitating and go! Seriously, Rukia's waiting!"

He nodded, gesturing to Ganju and Hanataro to follow. The three of them started to leave the area, heading farther along as the two combatants finally crossed blades, two powerful energies colliding and nearly obliterating the area around them. An uneasy feeling rose in his stomach as the pulse of reiatsu hit him.

They must have gotten several hundred yards away when someone stopped their path. The helmeted captain appeared before them. "You did not actually think I would let you get away, right? You're lucky that I allowed you to get this far, or you'd have to fight me with Kenpachi's spiritual pressure influencing you."

"Why are you stopping us at all?" asked Ganju. "Why not just let us pass? We only want to save Rukia!"

"I have a duty to protect the Soul Society and to uphold its values, and if you are enemies of the Seireitei, then I  _will_  stop you by any means necessary," explained Komamura, drawing his zanpakutou with a flourish.

Chad frowned, knowing very well that he was the only one who could possibly fight him. Ganju could not help. Hanataro could not help. He realized something interesting, however. Ichigo was the strongest of their group, but Chad now understood his position with wanting to take on every opponent so that they did not have to. Chad had to fight Komamura, and he was the only one that could.

"Ganju, get the hell out of here and take Hanataro with you! I'll hold him back!"

"No, Chad, you ca-"

"I can, and I will. Go."

It took a few more seconds, but they followed Chad's request, disappearing from the area. The human knew that if he did not intercept Komamura, the captain would simply follow the two of them and kill them where they stood.

"Noble move, young one," Komamura said, curious. "I can respect that, and I hope that you will respect my sense of duty to my people."

Chad did not comment, still too on edge to think of anything else but the captain in front of him.

"Not going to talk, are you?" Komamura whipped his sword around and prepared a stance. "That's perfectly fine. We'll get down to business then."

The captain flashed forward, and Chad instinctively jumped away, green light blazing around his figure. When he realized that he was faster than the helmeted captain, it actually surprised him. Was he genuinely fast enough to keep up with a captain, or was this particular captain slower than his allies?

"You're fast." The captain brought down a powerful sword swing, and Chad threw up both of his arms and blocked the strike with the armor of his right elbow.

He moved inward with the other fist in the next second, punching at Komamura's stomach and dealing a considerable blow and making the captain lurch forward. Emblazoned, Chad aimed again, this time with his armored fist, and collided with the captain's left hip.

Komamura pushed off in the middle of recovery from the blow, and Chad had no idea if he was impressed or outraged or some combination of the two. The helmet covered the man's expressions, giving him a certain vagueness that not even hollows had.

The two combatants exchanged blows again and again for nearly thirty seconds, Chad using his speed to his advantage and evading all but the fastest of swings. Komamura was able to take all of his attacks, usually blocking them with the metallic bracers on his forearms. Occasionally, Chad got a lucky strike through his guard, but he had to risk receiving a cut in return.

Chad had considered the option of using another El Directo, but he had to save them for the right time. He could only use it so many times, and he had no idea what kind of enemy he could face farther down the road.

"Close-range fighter, right?" Komamura remarked, breathing hard. "You have that energy blast, but why haven't you used it?" When Chad did not respond, the captain nodded lightly. "You do not say much. I can empathize. It's probably to your advantage to keep your mouth shut whenever I ask about your abilities. So many of my colleagues run their mouths while they are fighting, and I just don't get it."

"I don't see the point in saying something if that something has no value."

Komamura nodded, perfectly understood, before raising his zanpakutou. "Roar, Tenken!" The sword changed shape, growing several inches and curving slightly at the end, so that the dull part of the blade had a slight indentation in its edge.

Chad noted its appearance, wondering what kind of abilities it would have. Ikkaku had not had any special abilities, other than his ability to separate the staff into three parts connected by a chain. What could this one do?

Despite the distance between them, Komamura swung downward, and Chad barely had enough time to protect the top of his head with his forearm. Surrounded by a purple aura, a giant arm carrying a giant version of Tenken had appeared, mimicking the movement of its wielder.

Chad's arm halted it, the reiatsu bearing down on him, and he could feel the skin of the armor tearing from the edge of the phantom giant's blade.

Komamura did not say anything, lifting up his attack and giving Chad the freedom to move as the giant arm followed its captain's arm, fading from sight. The Mexican teen knew that he could not mess around, instantly pouring energy into his arm.

Komamura seemed to know what was coming, swinging horizontally in order to stop his attack. The giant arm appeared again, as expected, and Chad pushed off the ground in a dash of speed, leaping into the air and avoiding the attack.

"El Directo!" Blue-white energy blasted toward the captain, the backwards force pushing Chad back in his mid-air jump. The captain moved quickly enough, protecting his body from the explosive energy by making the giant arm's sword cover him from head to toe.

Chad landed on his feet, hurling another weaker blast and dashing toward Komamura behind it. As the second blast collided with the apparition's sword, Chad slammed his right fist into the giant sword as hard as he could, at an angle he learned from Sakura and Yoruichi. Both versions of Tenken flew from Komamura's hands, the giant sword implanting in the ground fifty meters away before disappearing.

The captain gasped, as Chad threw a high-powered fist, blue energy cascading behind it, right into Komamura's helmet. The instant it touched, the helmet cracked into pieces and revealed the captain's true appearance: a human-like wolf with brown and white fur. The captain's eyes were wild with anger and disbelief that a human had managed to remove his Shikai from his hands.

He screamed as he was blasted backward by the impact, crashing into a large tower. A crack snaked away from him by the force of Chad's punch, bits of the wall falling down and debris littering the ground around him.

"What... what is this?" asked the captain, shocked and confused as he slowly stood, powering through the burn on the left side of his snout where Chad had struck. "What are you?"

Chad was breathing so heavily that he really could not be surprised by the captain's appearance. After Yoruichi, anything seemed possible. "A very tired human."

Komamura flashed forward, trying to use all the speed of a shinigami's Shunpo to get to his blade. Chad reacted faster, green light marking his path as his knee collided with the canine captain's stomach, causing the man to cough out blood. Chad was running at the end of his ropes, but he had to prevent the man from reaching his sword again.

Komamura fired a weak Shakkaho that was surprising enough that it exploded in Chad's face, knocking the human several feet backward.

The instant that the captain reached his Shikai, Chad cursed. He only had so much energy left, and if not for Tenken's sheer size of attack, he was not sure that he would be able to keep surprising the shinigami in front of him.

"You fight like a man with his life on the line. What is your drive, young Ryoka?"

Chad panted, trying to use the momentary break to store up some energy from rest. He only had so much left, and he had to use it sparingly. "I am fighting to support Ichigo in his goal. I want him to succeed."

Komamura paused for a moment, wiping the blood from his face, before smirking. "So you are fighting out of loyalty to your friends. You... want him to rescue Rukia, don't you?"

Chad nodded in agreement. "I'll do anything to make sure he does."

Komamura's spiritual pressure suddenly began to rise, red energy surrounding him. "Then be prepared to face the full power of the Captain of Squad Seven! Bankai!" Instantly, a blast of spiritual pressure appeared, and a blinding light faded to reveal the appearance of the full body of the giant that had been the power of his Shikai. Dark black samurai-like armor, a red cloth covering the bottom half of his face. Komamura stood on the shoulder, brandishing his blade as the giant mimicked all of his movements. "Kokujou Tengen Myou'ou!"

Chad could do nothing as the tall creature stood waiting. He did not have enough energy to do anything of value, even if he could, but he decided that he had to try. His focused solely on the problem at hand, not considering all of the problems associated with his group of friends succeeding if there were shinigami with this much power.

The teenager dashed out of the way of the first strike, but the massive impact caused enough damage to the surroundings that he was nearly knocked to the ground as it broke up underneath him.

Chad dashed toward the creature, powering up his arm with every bit of energy that he could without causing physical harm to himself, and fired the shot directly at the monster's head. He was hoping that the attack would be faster than its reflexes, but Komamura threw up the sword to block it and the El Directo exploded against the blade.

"You have nothing left, human. If you stop fighting now, I'll take you into custody. But if you do not, then I'm afraid that you will die today!"

Chad had to calm himself down, but he could not think rationally. He had to do this for Uryu. For Orihime. For Ganju. For Hantaro. For Rukia. For Ichigo. He had to fight, it was the only option.

"No. I cannot stop until they succeed!" Chad bellowed, pushing his spiritual energy to newfound heights, and expending his energy faster than he could possibly recover.

The instant the blade came down, Chad aimed his fist to intercept the Bankai head on. The El Directo gathered around it, and for a split second, the arm shifted appearances, growing much thicker on the lower portion of his arm with more intricate designs that almost looked like a face. The blue force of his fist exploded against the blade, halting the power of the Bankai and blasting it backward, much to Komamura's surprise.

Chad had no idea what happened next, the power of his own blast hitting the Bankai slamming him against the ground beneath him, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

Naruto felt the disturbance that could only be the release of the Bankai. When someone from his barracks pointed it out to him, Naruto rushed to the top of the roof to look out over the city. It was Captain Komamura's Bankai, the tall giant oppressively standing over the tops of the buildings far away from there.

"Amazing!" muttered Kiyone, having joined him. "Did someone actually force the release of a Bankai?"

Naruto did not know that much about the Ryoka individually, but he was certain that the only one strong enough to take on a Bankai would be Ichigo, with a lot more training. Naruto was terrified for them, and he knew then that he had to do something. The Bankai had been released very near the Senzaikyu, so Naruto knew that's where the group of Ryoka were headed.

"This is troubling," the soft voice behind him said, and Naruto turned to see his captain. "Sajin released his Bankai, and someone is fighting Kenpachi Zaraki."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, trying to decide how to speak to Ukitake about this matter; this was even worse for the humans, because Naruto had not realized the potent force of Kenpachi's spiritual pressure until just then. "Oh, I'm sure that Komamura and Zaraki will be fine. The Ryoka could not possibly be strong enough to fight either of them and win."

"I am not worried for them, Naruto. I am worried for the Ryoka," Ukitake explained, much to the blonde's surprise. "I do not wish any more harm for them than anyone else."

"But captain... aren't they the enemy?" asked Kiyone.

"I'm starting to wonder that myself," Naruto replied honestly.

"This is a tricky situation, but they are our opponents. Naruto, you should get some rest. I know you have been pre-occupied with Lieutenant Hinamori's situation all day. I can take care of the Squad for a little while."

"Are you sure?" Naruto asked, knowing that the captain was always more sick than he let on.

"Yes, I'm sure. Kiyone, make sure that everyone in the Squad knows to report to you, Sentaro, or me. Let Uzumaki have a few hours to himself."

"But, Captain, I do not think that I deserve thi-"

"You've covered for me quite a bit. Let me do the same, just for a while." He smiled brightly, and Naruto was almost glad to hand the burden over.

His mind was still trapped between the Ryoka situation and Aizen's murder and Hinamori's imprisonment. The Kyuubi had offered, half-jokingly, to just let himself out so that he could kill all of Naruto's enemies for him, but Naruto had had to shoot that idea down.

Part of him wanted to let out all of his frustrations, but nothing could ever be that easy, as easy as letting the Kyuubi run amok. He could only imagine what kind of chaos that would wreak on the city, in an already chaotic situation.


	20. Clashing Styles

Naruto hastily continued to square away the paperwork, trying to keep his mind busy so that he did not think about all the things that he wanted to think about. Squad Thirteen was beginning to grow anxious, Naruto included, because he and Ukitake had seemingly been working together, consciously or not, to keep Rukia's squad out of the conflict to decide her fate.

He had handled several disputes already, an unseated member trying to go out to join the ranks of the currently on patrol guards. Naruto had had to threaten a demotion or a military injunction for disobeying orders, and it continued to squeeze his mind and body with guilt.

The moment that he saw the pink-haired shinigami in the doorway, asking for him, he sighed in relief just to have a distraction, albeit temporarily.

"Naruto, Lieutenant Kotetsu asked me to send you a report of those damages we have calculated so far. And I would really like to get your comment in private, so that I can get back to her really quickly." The girl was holding a rather large stack of medical records, as well as property damage reports. Naruto figured that she was trying to raise money so that Squad Four and Squad Seven could work together to rebuild the war-torn city once the conflict was over.

Naruto nodded, the two of them splitting off to head to Naruto's personal quarters for a brief moment. Naruto closed the door behind him. When she raised a finger to her lips and spelled a silencing Kido, Naruto was utterly confused.

"I'm not here for this," she said, gesturing to the paperwork. "I'm here to ask for your help."

"Help? What do you mean?"

"Help in helping the Ryoka. I was trying to stay uninvolved, but I was not aware if you knew or not that I was injured a few days before all of this started," she explained. "I got into a fight with an upper-level hollow, and long story short, I ended up at Urahara's Shop, where the Ryoka were training to fight and save Rukia. I helped two of their side learn how to fight, how to access their powers and fight against shinigami." She sighed. "I couldn't stand the thought of them getting hurt, so I've been helping them to heal in between battles."

Naruto had no idea how to respond. This whole time, she had been helping them, but Naruto had not had the guts to do the same? He was more closely involved than anyone else, but he was not willing to risk his own skin. What the hell was wrong with him?

You didn't use to be like this. You used to have spunk, explained the Kyuubi. You've matured after all these years, but what a one eighty. Why did the pink-haired brat retain that, but you lost it along the way?

Naruto had no answers, and neither did Kusaritane.  _"I don't know, fox. I... I just... I'm scared."_

 _Scared? Honey, why would you be scared?_  asked his zanpakutou caringly.

_"Scared of failing everyone again."_

Naruto did not expand on that, knowing that he had a real reason, but he just did not want to get into it. "What do you want me to do to help?"

Sakura went into a semi-long explanation of the days' events, from her perspective, explaining that Ichigo and Kenpachi Zaraki were fighting, and that Chad had just lost to Komamura's Bankai and was being put into custody. Orihime was apparently safe on the other side of the tower, still making her way there slowly after learning where to go, and that Uryu was missing.

"I was wondering if you could help me watch Ichigo," she explained, taking out a cloak from the bag on her back. "I need to find Uryu, and while I am confident that Ichigo will win, I'm terrified that he'll win with too many injuries to actually continue."

"You think Ichigo can win against Zaraki?" Naruto asked, wide-eyed. He knew that the human-turned-shinigami was powerful, but he did not think Ichigo could be that powerful.

"Yes," she said, wholeheartedly. "He's got the reiatsu for it, if he'll just access it. I've touched his reiryoku reserves, and he has so much more than anyone I've ever personally encountered. Maybe even more than Captain Unohana, and with the potential to turn all of that energy into spiritual pressure. He's something else."

Naruto could not imagine anyone being stronger than the captains. No one had seen a Vasto Lorde in decades, but Naruto had never encountered that kind of spiritual pressure. Could Ichigo actually be a captain-class human?

"I'll help. I need to do something." he said, taking the cloak offered to him. Naruto was not sure why she was handing him a piece of clothing, but he took it nonetheless.

She noticed the confused look on his face. "It's a special fabric developed by Urahara and Tessai that blocks the wearer's reiatsu nearly perfectly."

He admired the fabric, looking at its intricate threads, like they all were meant to touch at least once. The texture was interesting, and if he really focused hard, he could feel the Kido that had been weaved into the smooth haori. "I bet that Momo could tell me what kinds of Kido that Tessai used in this. I can name two of them, but there is another that I don't recognize."

Sakura smiled meekly. "I... Are you okay? I mean, how do you feel about her situation?" When he didn't answer, she shook her head. "No, it's none of my business. Sorry."

"It's fine," he said finally. "Momo and I are not doing well. I finally told her about everything that had happened, but then Aizen was found dead. When I stopped her from fighting with Ichimaru and Kira, she blamed me for it. Told me that if I could try to bend the rules to give Rukia more time in a mission that will lead to her execution, then she should get the same right to risk her life." He sighed, clenching his fists. "Can I vent at you for a bit? I didn't want to make the situation worse."

She nodded. "Go ahead."

"I don't understand her argument! She attacked a captain! All I did was give Rukia a little extra time! I had to stop her, because Ichimaru is an evil asshole who probably killed Aizen, and I couldn't bear to risk losing her! Am I wrong for wanting to protect her? Should I let her make her own probably life-ending decision!? I don't know what I would do without her! And now she's angry at me, because I did what I needed to, to make sure she didn't die!

"That's all I've been doing. I've been doing this for everyone. Back when we were little, you probably beat me over the head so many times for being an impulsive little shit. I can't tell you how often I wound up lying on the ground, bleeding and hoping that the Kyuubi's healing would kick in. So I've tried really hard  _NOT_  to be impulsive, to do right this time so that I can protect everyone  _without_ throwing my body around like a ragdoll."

Sakura nodded, continued to nod throughout his speech. "So you're trying to be more mental this time, rather than physical?"

"I guess that's a good way to put it," he muttered, pacing back and forth. "I do not want to fail my friends, my squad, or her. I want to make sure that I do what's right. I know now that being so impatient and obnoxious is immature. Hell, if I'd have actually paid any bit of attention to my surroundings, or if I'd have listened to Jiraiya in the first place, I wouldn't have walked right into the trap that got the Kyuubi extracted. I might have lived to be eighty years old with Hinata at my side and the hat on my head."

He was still pacing, the anger releasing from his shoulders bit by bit, with every word and every footfall.

She stood up and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I know that you are hurting, but you can't get boggled down in all of those details. There's a reason why those of us with reiryoku forget our human lives, because if we dwell on what could have been, we'll end up going insane. Promise me, Naruto, that if you ever get this way again, you'll come to me. But only come to me  _after_  you've told everything to Momo. Had you been up front with her from the get go, she would probably not be as angry with you as she is now. I promise you that if you talk to her, if you tell her everything, you and Momo will continue to be better off in the end."

He wanted to congratulate her, but someone knocked on the door. Sakura dispelled the spell quickly, and Naruto opened it to reveal Ukitake. "Oh, hello, Miss Haruno." He bowed lightly and Sakura mimicked his gesture.

"Hello, Captain Ukitake! I'm going to slip out. Naruto, when you get a chance, will you send me those papers that I needed?" The blonde nodded, and the other shinigami left.

"Rukia is being moved again to another tower of the Senzaikyu, and I was wondering if you would like to come with me. Byakuya wants me to witness it."

Naruto thought about it, considering the cloak hidden underneath his shihakushou's undershirt. "I'm actually going to have to pass. I need to get Sakura's paperwork done, and I'll stay here and watch over the barracks. Will that be all right?"

Ukitake nodded. "Yes, of course. I probably have quite a bit of things to catch up on too. I'd better be off. Remember the meetings for the SWA and SMA we are supposed to host next week. It's our turn, isn't it?"

Naruto nodded, a little confused by the captain worrying about such a trivial matter during wartime. "I won't."

Ukitake did not seem to have a care in the world, and Naruto could not help but be a little jealous.

* * *

Hours had passed since she had last had a visitor. Not even the guard outside the cell had been conversational, and everything was starting to upset her again. She remembered Aizen and cried. She remembered her fight with Naruto and cried. Everything was far too silent for her roaming mind.

 _How could Aizen leave me?_  The white paint of the room made Momo think of the blood-stained wall of the building where Aizen had been pinned with a sword, innocent Aizen.

 _How could Naruto do this to me?_ The bars of the cell in front of Momo made her think of her reason for being behind bars in the first place, and she still remembered the sting of Naruto's reiatsu colliding and overcoming her own to stop her from pursuing Izuru and Gin any further.

The two most important men in her life were causing her every version of pain on the spectrum, and she felt like she could not possibly gain her footing again. She wanted to feel confident, wanted to feel like she had a purpose again. Just the other day, she had figured out the Kido that she, Kira, and Naruto had been working on for weeks, but she had yet to test it. In fact, she did not even think either of the two of them actually knew she had completed the missing word, but she doubted they would be able to care at this point.

The moment that she felt someone's presence behind her, the guard announced that she had a visitor. She turned around, knowing it was not Naruto or Toshiro, and was surprised to see Rangiku standing before her.

"You look terrible."

"Rangiku, I-"

"So have you finally calmed down yet?" asked the Squad Ten lieutenant.

Momo considered it a moment. "Yes, I have. I'm sorry that I lost control out there. I made trouble for you too, Rangiku."

"Huh?" asked the other woman. "Oh, listen, it's no problem. Never mind about me. You're the one who is in big trouble right now."

"Yeah, I know," Momo said, trying not to show that she was angry with the way that Rangiku was speaking to her. The other lieutenant could be a wealth of information to her while she's stuck in the cage. "What's going on out there?"

"Well, it's a complete disaster. Something like this happening in the midst of all the squads, it's simply unheard of," she explained frankly. "Two captains are on the battlefield right now, Zaraki and Komamura. The latter of which used his bankai against his opponent, one of the Ryoka. Everyone is acting on their own without any focus, and none of the Squads are trying to cooperate with each other."

Momo thought about what she learned, surprised that someone would use their Bankai against one of the intruders. "But what about Aizen's murderer?"

Rangiku frowned, knowing exactly where Momo was going with that line of questioning. "Well, they are still gathering evidence from the crime scene. We just have to wait for the Head Captain to announce his findings."

Momo was still latched onto one word, running it around and around in her head. "Evidence?! But I already know who killed him! It was-"

"Don't say it, Momo!" Matsumoto exclaimed, cutting the girl off. "That is an accusation that you cannot make. I understand. I know you want to see that justice is done, but you should be more concerned about your own Squad Five! Think about it: in all of one day, your Squad has lost both its captain and its lieutenant. I appreciate that you're hurt, and you're angry. Nevertheless, when this happened, the actions you took upon discovering Captain Aizen's body, confronting Captain Ichimaru and releasing the energy of your zanpakutou... Was there no other choice? Nothing else you might have done in that situation?" She looked at her accusingly as Momo rewound the events in her mind. "You were lucky that Naruto was there, and that Captain Hitsugaya arrived shortly thereafter. If you think about it, I'm sure that you'll realize that you did have some other options at that point." Rangiku looked down on the now trembling girl. "The title of lieutenant demands that it should never be taken so lightly, no matter what!"

Momo knew everything that she was saying was right, but she honestly did not truly want to admit it in the back of her mind. She did not want to concede that it was a bad option, that the method she chose to seek vengeance was anything but ideal. She sighed. "You're right, I'm sorry. I just... I thought, if I could..."

Rangiku gave her a look of sorrow and pulled something from the sash on her abdomen, presenting Momo with a scroll bound with purple string. "Here. This was in Captain Aizen's room. It's addressed to you."

She looked at the paper in awe, not sure if she was really seeing this or if it was some kind of dream. She could hardly believe it as she pulled the letter from Rangiku's hands.

"You're lucky it was my captain who found it," Matsumoto said, standing up and stretching her legs slightly. "But you need to know if it had been anyone else, excluding maybe Naruto, they probably would have seized it as evidence for the investigation, and it never would have reached you.

"I have not read any of it, and I have no idea what it says. But as a loyal lieutenant, you should be proud to know that your captain's last words were for you." As the woman turned to walk out, she leaned back a second. "I hope you appreciate it."

"Oh, I do! Thanks so much, Rangiku!"

The woman waved off as she left the room, but Momo could do nothing but stare at the paper in a stupor. When she finally untied it, her hands were shaking again.

_"Momo,  
If you're reading this letter, then it means that I didn't make it back."_

Momo's eyes widened, and she covered her mouth to mask her gasp.  _He knew. He knew someone was targeting him._

_"I know that my actions lately have been a great source of worry to you, and for that, I am truly sorry. Until now, I've never spoken to you about the feelings of apprehension that I've been having._

_"But you must understand, Momo, that whatever I kept from you, it was only because I wanted, if at all possible, to keep you from becoming involved in all of this. Sadly, I have now done just that, and knowing what I know, you should have been aware of what I've found years ago._

_"I could not bring myself to hurt you and your kind, loving heart, but if I do not tell you about this now, I'm afraid now that I am gone, you will be in the crossfire. I hope somehow, that you will find it in your heart to forgive me for not warning you before now._

_"The chain of events was unavoidable. As for me, I am probably no longer among the living. Therefore, to you, whom I trust more than any other, I leave this record of the truths I have uncovered."_

When Momo read the next line, she gasped and all the color drained from her face.

* * *

Orihime finally recalled her Shun Shun Rikka, the tiny fairy-like spirits appearing instantly next to her. She was learning more and more about her abilities, and was using the Rikka to scout ahead of her. They were small enough, that when in flight mode, they could move slowly enough to not draw attention. She merely found a place to hide, and thanks to their empathic connection, she could always tell where trouble was nearby when she used this method.

She had tried really, really hard to keep her head held high, and learning things like her ability to heal herself, as well as others, was helping her self confidence. Despite all of this, she had been a walking zombie since the end of the battle with Jirobo the Wind Scythe.

She had nearly been raped. She had killed a man. She tried to keep reminding herself that they were the enemy, that it had been self-defense, but it still hurt. It still hurt down on the inside.

 _It's that hurt that will make you strong, remember?_  Tsubaki reminded her.

She knew. Not only would it work for her offensive capabilities, but it would also help expand her defensive and support attributes as well. The moment that she realized that she was monumentally stronger than she had ever anticipated as the moment that she finally decided that she was going to try to keep pushing those negative feelings to the back of her mind. She thought of Ichigo and of Chad and of Uryu and of Yoruichi, all in order to stay positive. She had to keep her spirits high, because if she didn't, she would remember all of those horrible feelings were still there, even when she didn't use them as a weapon.

Orihime twisted around a corner, realizing that she was near a library, oddly enough. The large building was much, much bigger than she thought, but the entire thing was covered in layers of barriers. She crouched down, wondering if it would be worth going inside. There were no guards, no other defenses other than the shields. If she could get past them, she could probably find some kind of book on shinigami law, and it might help them save Rukia.

When she finally decided on the idea, she used Tsubaki. The speeding projectile flew forward without incantation, slamming into the shield but not breaking it.

"It's probably a good thing that it didn't break, now that I think about it. There are probably alarms attached to it." Orihime smiled and touched the shield, leaning against it a moment to tie her shoe and head away from there.

The instant that all her weight was pressed against the shield, her body slipped inside like it was not a barrier at all. She gasped in surprise, pulling herself off the ground as her Rikka passed inside, this time less forcefully. Tsubaki almost did not try to even come in, afraid that he would hit his head on the surface, but eventually, he slipped inside to join her as well.

"Hmm, I wonder what happened?" she asked. None of the Rikka had any ideas.

She approached the building carefully, probably too carefully, because it was obvious that it was empty. That barrier must have been what they put up during war times, to prevent strategies from leaking while the guards left to fight. It was pretty clear that no one was watching over the place, and Orihime smiled when she walked right in the front door like she owned the place.

The library was shaped like an octagon, but it was far bigger than she had ever imagined on the inside. She was on the bottom floor, but there must have been thirteen stories, and she wondered if it was because of the thirteen squads.

She quickly looked through book after book, sending the Rikka to find any books that could be related to law or the execution process. She found interesting tidbits of information about the structure of Central 46 and how they decree, but there was nothing about overturning a decision. She read about the executioner's blade, the Sokyoku, which supposedly had the power of a million zanpakutou.

 _Sounds like overkill to me,_  muttered Tsubaki, holding twelve books in his hand and looking as though he would never, ever be able to actually hold all of them.

"That's what's g-going to happen to Rukia? How awful!"

Shuno shook his head.  _No way, Orihime! We're going to find something useful that we can use to save her!_

It must have been hours and several textbooks about the noble families and their relationship with the Central 46 later, before Orihime decided that it was time to put them all back. But before she could, someone shouted out to her.

"Hey! You! What are you doing here?" the female voice shouted. Orihime turned to see a brunette woman running toward her, the badge of a lieutenant that Yoruichi had warned her about on her arm. The woman adjusted her glasses as she jumped down from the second floor balcony onto the first floor, drawing her sword.

Orihime ran, summoning the Rikka back to her side from wherever they were in the Great Spiritual Library. The woman followed, and in a quick Shunpo, landed right in front of Orihime.

"You're the Ryoka girl that Nara talks about, aren't you?"

Orihime had no idea who she was talking about, but she quickly turned around and was met with the woman's sword, inches away from her face. She threw up her arms in reflex, the triangular shield blocking the swing to her head, and then shoved the lieutenant into one of the bookcases.

The human girl continued to run, too scared to fight a lieutenant. She was not sure if she could win or not, but she did not want to press her luck. They were the second strongest class of warriors in all of the Soul Society, so she did not want to risk herself.

She kept running, blocking sword strikes with Santen Kesshun and pushing the woman back by pushing the shield forward. Something happened, however, as she touched a bookshelf. Instantly, it fell away through some kind of trap door or pit, and Orihime fell down into it.

It eventually turned into a slide, and she realized that the lieutenant would easily follow her down the chute. When she finally landed a midst a dark tunnel, she slammed against the ground at the base of a statue. The statue was so large, a statue of some indeterminable person of Soul Society's history that nearly touched the thirty-foot high ceilings. While she was not particularly destructive, Tsubaki had other ideas.

The ninja-like fairy zipped through the air, hitting the statue at around the shins in a precise spot. The statue collapsed on itself, and Orihime threw up her shield in time to stop the debris from hitting her. When the field of dust finally cleared, Tsubaki had destroyed the statue in such a way that the debris now blocked the passageway into this chamber. If Orihime was lucky, it would hold off the lieutenant for long enough.

She looked around the room, not thinking that she would not have a place to escape. There had to be a way back up and out, especially if that was a slide of some sort. The room she was in looked like a hollowed-out cavern tunnel, that probably lead somewhere deeper into the Seireitei. The place was lit with lanterns all along the walls, but there was almost nothing there but the statue. She wondered if they even knew that this was there.

There was an interesting sword sitting against the wall, lit up and sitting on a pedestal like it was something important. It was literally the only object in the room that was actually describable. Orihime picked it up, studying it for a moment, before setting it down again.

"I probably don't need to mess with that," she muttered, tapping it for good luck. There were two possible ways to go, and she had her Rikka split up again. When they returned, she knew to travel back to her right to get out, and it was probably just time enough.

"We got really lucky that we got away," Orihime said. Her Rikka could not agree more, as they continued down the dark tunnel in the hopes that it led somewhere closer to Rukia.

* * *

Naruto, donned in the brown cloak that Urahara had given to Sakura, approached the site of Ichigo and Zaraki's battle. It was over, had been for quite some time, and both combatants were not even there. Naruto cursed, not having any idea how Ichigo had managed to flee on his own.

Craters and cracks in buildings, huge debris piles littered the entire scene of their powerful collisions, but judging from the fact that neither Ichigo nor Kenpachi were present, Naruto knew that they had fought to, at least, a stalemate. He figured that since he knew Kenpachi Zaraki, Naruto surmised that the captain would have left the body there after he was finished with it, and it would be someone else who would pick it up like the honorable thing to do.

Without a trace of where to go, Naruto cursed. Had he arrived sooner, he could have pulled Ichigo away from the scene the moment it was over, in order to save him from death. Who could possibly have saved him? How could the human be standing, let alone walking or running from there?

He opened his spiritual senses, and without warning, something showed up on his radar. Something massive and unruly headed to a more refined, large presence. They were heading toward each other, and Naruto realized right then that if he did not get to the base of the Senzaikyu fast enough, something very, very bad could happen.

Ichigo was heading toward Byakuya.

Without much pressure, he pulled into the Kyuubi's chakra, and he felt the power flow within his veins. Claws grew on his fingertips, eyes dilating until he was seeing red, and he considered going into the one-tailed chakra cloak. He stopped himself, knowing that he needed to be discreet.

In twelve steps of Shunpo, the fastest he had moved in years, he headed straight for the bridge from the sky above. He analyzed his surroundings. Rukia was kneeling on all fours on one side of the bridge, the oppressive spiritual pressures of the two soon-to-be combatants weighing her down. Ukitake stood in shock near her, while two people stood wounded on the other side of the bridge that he could not even recognize.

Ichigo, not having noticed his presence thanks to the cloak, had raised his meat cleaver of a zanpakutou against Byakuya. The idiot was about to get himself killed.

"I've got it, Captain Kuchiki!" Naruto yelled, putting the Kyuubi back in the box before anyone could see, smirking as he landed in front of Ichigo and drew his sword. "Drop that sword now, before you do something you regret."

He was trying to think ahead. He could have attacked Byakuya instead of Ichigo. Or he could attack Ichigo and make sure he's captured, rather than outright killed by the other captain who would no doubt be reaching for blood.

"Naruto?" asked Ukitake, completely confused by his presence. Rukia seemed just as shocked.

"Please, Captain Ukitake, allow me to take him on. If he wants to fight someone so badly to save her, I'll take the burden," explained Naruto, before turning to the noble captain behind him. "I would hate for you to waste your energy on a weakling like him."

Kuchiki did not seem pleased with the idea that Naruto had just interrupted their potential fight. "Fair point, Uzumaki."

"I don't care who you are! You're not going to stand in my way of saving Rukia!" Naruto shot a knowing glance in Rukia's direction, and he hoped that she got the message.

The orange-haired shinigami swung his sword, instantly pulsating his powerful spiritual pressure as he locked with the lieutenant's much shorter sword. Naruto pushed off with his own, which may not have been as potent, but he knew how to use it after decades of experience. Ichigo did not seem to be affected, but Naruto had much more than that up his sleeve.

Ichigo swung Zangetsu again, and Naruto caught the blade once more, closer to Ichigo's handle this time. The blonde kicked Ichigo in the shin, but the human just gritted his teeth and pressed harder, clipping Naruto's shoulder with the top of his blade.

"You're not going to do very well against me with that glorified dagger," Ichigo muttered. "And I've already beat one of you lieutenants already. There's no way that you'll win. If I can beat one, I can beat them all."

Naruto pushed off of the opponent, leaping backwards. "You beat Renji. He's the second strongest lieutenant after me! Shakkaho!" The red flash of fire pulsed from his palm, but Ichigo sliced the projectile in mid-air, the explosion going off somewhere behind him.

"It's gonna take more than Kido," explained Ichigo, rushing forward again.

Naruto flash-stepped to the right, jumping on top of the railing to avoid the powerful sword slash that put a nice scratch in the wood of the bridge. He swung at the back of Ichigo's right shoulder blade, cutting into the material of his shihakusho and leaving a gash in the skin below.

Ichigo swung again, through the pain and torture of his wound, and managed to hit Naruto with the flat side of Zangetsu. It was strong enough that there would be bruises for weeks.

Naruto twisted his hand, firing a Sokatsui that Ichigo countered with his own energy blast, a crescent moon-shaped zanpakutou technique that would have cut into the shinigami's forehead if he had not been paying attention.

"I have to say, this is a terrible place to fight," Naruto muttered, pointing to the form of Rukia, who was cowering low enough. "A stray spell of mine could hurt someone, or you could cut someone's head off with that ability of yours."

Naruto flash-stepped backward, landing at the other side of the bridge where a platform stood overlooking the city. It was wide enough that they could fight more readily, and Ichigo followed, crashing into him with a sword strike of his own.

"I've fought stronger opponents than you," explained Ichigo, slashing diagonally in a move that Naruto blocked once with Kusaritane before stepped to the side to evade the rest of it. "I just beat a captain! Getsuga Tensho!"

The white blue energy blast erupted from Zangetsu, and Naruto's eyes widened from the sheer power of it. He considered allowing himself to be grazed by it, but from what happened to Renji after he lost to Ichigo, Naruto did not want to take his luck with someone like Byakuya watching the fight.

Naruto Shunpo-ed behind Ichigo, avoiding the energy blast and doing another damaging blow to the other shoulder. Ichigo cursed and twisted his entire upper torso around, planning to bring the blade down on the nape of Naruto's neck, but his opponent shoved the human with all his might, throwing him several feet.

"I honestly don't care about rank," explained the blonde. "Everyone excels in something, and I'm definitely the strongest of my rank, and one day, I'll be stronger than all of them. Zaraki is an awesome fighter, and in terms of spiritual power, he's the strongest captain. I doubt I could beat him without relying on some trickery, but I could beat several of his colleagues. And that's not even me being arrogant."

Naruto neglected to mention that he could probably only defeat maybe four of the thirteen captains, without the help of the Kyuubi to boost his power. With the Kyuubi, he was pretty sure that he could defeat Kenpachi, but Naruto did not want to risk finding that out just in case he was brutally wrong.

This guy was good, despite not having any formal training. He thought really well on his feet and adapted his style after each fight. It seemed to Naruto that if Ichigo was given enough wars and time to develop, he could be stronger than the strongest of the strong.

"Let me show you how I could defeat some of them! Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!" Instantly, Naruto's zanpakutou shifted its form in a flash of orange light, resting in a gauntlet around his right forearm with a nine-inch pronged dagger protruding from it. Three jewel-like swirls of energy, each getting smaller as they headed toward the tip.

"Your sword just got shorter!" Ichigo shouted, stabbing forward with Zangetsu and aiming to hit Naruto in the chest. The blonde shinigami threw up his right forearm, pushing the enemy's zanpakutou away.

In one motion, Naruto shot the chained-dagger from its launcher, stabbing into Ichigo's left bicep. He waved his right arm around, directing the chain with both his physical motions and his spirit energy, and snapping the chain all the way around the human's body, trapping Zangetsu at his side, unable to move.

Ichigo grimaced, unable to move, before suddenly raising his reiatsu to extremely high levels. It was so sudden that Naruto did not expect it, and when the chain let go of his arm just so slightly, Ichigo snapped his sword down on the end of the chain and it allowed him to get free with the misplaced tension.

Naruto cursed, retracting the blade ever so slightly before grabbing the chain with his left hand, spinning the blade around and around his body threateningly. "See if you can get close now, Kurosaki!"

The orange-haired human-turned-shinigami raced forward with surprising speed, and Naruto snapped the chain tight and use the sudden tension to stop the blade from hitting the top of his head. He used his spirit energy, causing the dagger to whip toward Ichigo's unprotected stomach. It made its mark, embedding itself in the human's gut.

He shouted suddenly, screeching as he swung again and again, but Naruto continued to counter power with versatility, his weapon able to be used for many purposes. Another Getsuga Tensho nearly removed Naruto's arm from his socket, but the shinigami was able to leap out of the way of the energy blast before calling for one of his own zanpakutou abilities. "Rasentane!"

The dagger launched from its holster, spinning around and around as it unleashed orange energy and collided with the ground at Ichigo's feet, the explosion knocking him backwards. The orange light formed a sprouting seed in the air before the light show ended, revealing Ichigo lying against the ground.

Naruto was winded and wounded, several cuts on his ribs and chest. Ichigo was winded and wounded, stab wounds and burns all around.

The human sent a wave of energy once more, and Naruto tried to leap again to dodge it. In a surprising burst of speed, Ichigo's Zangetsu found flesh once more, a huge cut to Naruto's left hip. The blonde tried to ignore it, but it was definitely a distraction.

Ichigo was going to stop to gloat, but Naruto pointed with his zanpakutou's bracer. "Rikujokoro!"

Instantly, yellow beams of light suddenly surrounded the body of the human, preventing him from moving.

Naruto dipped his voice lower, holding his hands in such a way that it looked like he was struggling to keep it up. "Listen to me, Ichigo. Listen well. I'm not here to actually fight you. I fought you to keep you from fighting Byakuya."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm offering to help you, dumbass, keep your voice down for a minute," Naruto muttered, glad they were far enough away from Byakuya and the others for anyone to hear. "I want Rukia to be saved! I'm her lieutenant. I'll explain everything later, I promise." Naruto stood up, walking over while keeping the spell active. "I'm going to knock you unconscious while you're captured like this, all right?"

Ichigo, of course, continued to struggle, screaming nonsense. Naruto could only cast a noise-cancelling Kido when they were in a room, so this would have to do. His struggle only made things better anyway, more recognizable.

He reared back and punched Ichigo so hard that Sakura would be jealous, and the human fell unconscious.

"It's over," he called out to the group on the bridge, letting go of the spell and his Shikai. That had taken far more of him than it should. Naruto had to wonder what a fight between them would be like if they knew all of their skills before hand, and Naruto had not been able to surprise him. That kid's adaptability was what was so terrifying about him. "He's alive, just unconscious. Captain Ukitake, can we take him into our custody for investigation into Aizen's death?"

"I believe this charge is of my responsibility," explained Kuchiki. "I should have outright killed him that night, rather than crippling him. I have the perfect opportunity now."

Naruto subconsciously took a step closer to Ichigo, a step in between him and Captain Kuchiki. Captain Ukitake, however, was who spoke up. "No, I believe our official protocol suggests that the squad that captures a prisoner of war is allowed to hold the prisoner of war until such a time that it is necessary to either release or execute him." Ukitake gestured lightly to Rukia. "For someone who is so adamant about policies being followed, it seems that you have forgotten a detail."

Captain Kuchiki scowled. For someone who seemed to wear a permanent scowl, it was difficult to know when he actually  _was_  scowling. "You are correct. Forgive me, Captain. As for the others, may I take them into my care?" Byakuya stepped toward the unconscious and very wounded body of the man on the other side of the bridge, as well as a small boy with a Squad Four insignia on his bag.

Naruto watched as the entire thing was wrapping up, and he was already plotting on how to get Ichigo out of the barracks later that day.


	21. Revive the Broken Bow

Uryu shook himself awake the moment he felt the prodding. It was dull and light and barely noticeable, but it was definitely there. He looked over to see the most odd creature he had ever seen, a man standing over him dressed in a captain's haori. He had black and white face paint and an odd headdress fixing his hair in a strange style.

The captain was prodding the end of his fingertips with needles, each attached to the end of the other captain's fingers, as though his hand was some kind of medical syringe. Other devices seemed to mesh with his biology, and Uryu did not even want to  _know_  what kind of man this was.

"Get off of me," Uryu said weakly, coughing lightly. The pain around his arm intensified, and the numbing agent was obviously not working to its full extent anymore. "What are you doing? Let me out of here!"

The captain grinned. "I have to say, it always pleases me when my patients express... discomfort. I get to see the full range of emotion that they can express when they are in a stressful situation. I probably know more about how fear is expressed than any other person alive."

"I'm not afraid of you!" Uryu was being honest. He was not afraid of him. He was afraid of his father finding out that he was strapped to a table, unable to escape a sadistic shinigami captain.

"Your biometric levels would indicate differently," explained the calm voice in the corner. Uryu leaned over slightly, his vision re-focusing on the girl from before, the captain's lieutenant. "Master, how much longer will it take to remove the glove?"

The captain frowned. "I'm afraid that I do not know, my Nemu, as much as it sickens me to admit that. No one knows more about Quincy, but I am not positive that I can actually remove the glove. I have removed a Sanrei Glove from its user once before, but I had to kill the specimen in order to do that, and the glove disintegrated before I could get formal study on its applications." Uryu felt a painful shock of electricity go up his arm, and he screamed in pain. "Oh, I suppose that didn't work."

It was suddenly painfully obvious that the captain was referring to his grandfather, the only other user of a Sanrei Glove that he had ever heard of. It was a signature of his grandfather, something that Soken had not invented but had perfected. Uryu wished that he knew of its full capabilities, but he had simply not had the time to do so before coming to the Soul Society. Now, it was of no use to him, and he was trapped without the ability to access his bow or any of his tools, like the Ginto that he had brought with him.

"What the hell? How do you know my grandfather?!" Uryu was shouting, trying and failing to expel any kind of spiritual pressure.

The man studied his face for a moment. "Hmmm. Interesting. You are related to one of my favorite experiments? What a marvelous predicament that you are in!"

"Who are you, you bastard?!" Uryu struggled against his bindings.

The captain seemed delighted to tell, his freakish face lighting up with a smile. "My name is Mayuri Kurotsuchi, and I am the captain of Squad Twelve. You've made me very happy, Quincy, because this adds an entirely new dynamic to my studies! I can test how familial relationships interact with dire situations of duress!" The captain giggled, and Uryu wanted to vomit.

Someone entered the room, gasping. Uryu looked up to see someone that he had seen before, and when the man stepped closer to the light, he realized where. It was the man he had fought the morning before they blasted into the Seireitei with Kukaku's cannon.

"Shikamaru Nara, I can't say I'm glad to see you," admitted the captain, prodding Uryu again. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was going to ask you directly about how your monitoring of the Ryoka was going, but you seem busy with one of them right now." Shikamaru watched his ministrations for a moment. "You probably should adjust the sedative, Captain. If he's conscious, he's probably making your job harder to remove the glove."

Uryu's eyes widened. The man had been here for less than thirty seconds, and he had already discovered the main issue that the captain was having, that Uryu was forcing. Who was this guy, really? Based on how Shikamaru had fought, the Quincy wondered if he was some sort of genius.

Nemu nodded suddenly, never looking away from the Quincy. "Yes, Third Seat Nara is correct, based on my data. It appears that Uryu's nerves are still trying to make contact with the nerve control centers powering the glove, and it is making it impossible to remove."

Uryu remembered Nemu's admission from earlier that they had been deadening the nerves around the glove, but apparently, they missed something. Uryu wished that he knew more about his own anatomy, but he supposed that he could ask his father when he got the chance. If he did.

"Impossible." The captain stood up, pacing back and forth. He was deep in thought, trying to think of some proactive method. "Wait. I know what to do, although I would rather do it in a sanitary way." The captain left the room, confusing all of them for a brief moment. When he returned, he was carrying a sheet of plastic, or some plastic-like material, and the Captain placed it on the ground underneath Uryu's right forearm. "Can't let the floor be stained with blood, of course."

* * *

Ukitake coughed violently, wishing that he could feel better. He was forcing himself to work, and everyone in the barracks was treating him gingerly, as though he were a bomb that could go off at any moment.

He looked over the squad assignments, seeing the individual shinigami and the places where they were stationed. He noticed no irregularities, and after cross-referencing them with recent hollow activity, it actually seemed as though hollow activity had intensified over the last few months.

Why the sudden change? Were there more deaths recently? Based on what he could tell from the data about transmigration patterns of human souls, it had not changed significantly. Something was just naturally happening that caused hollow activity to increase, and it's not like it hadn't happened before. It was something that was apparently going on, on top of everything else happening.

From the Ryoka invasion to the murder of Captain Aizen, and now this, what else would be added to the pile of things that the Soul Society needed to worry about? There were rumors circling about a faraway place off of the coast of Japan, an entire group of large island nations that was obscured from spiritual activity. Ukitake had received a report for review from Shunsui (more likely from his lieutenant, actually) about the possibility of some kind of atmospheric agent that blocked their sensors around those islands. The possibility of this being dangerous somehow was unsettling, and Ukitake wanted to open it up for study, there was just too much going on.

Ukitake stood up from the desk, stretching his legs. He walked down the hall, wanting to check on the Ryoka that was so important to Rukia. Ichigo Kurosaki was an enigma, someone so impossibly powerful given how he should have had no power at all. He resembled his former lieutenant Kaien Shiba so perfectly that it unnerved him, and the captain could not help but wonder if Kaien had been reincarnated as Ichigo.

He frowned as he realized that that was impossible, knowing that the hollow Metastacia had devoured and destroyed the man's soul. There was no way that he could possibly be alive, even as a reincarnated soul, in Ichigo. And part of that made him a bit sad.

The instant that he opened the door to what should have been his cell, he froze. Empty. Completely empty, the door not even ajar. He had not powered his way through the Kido locking him in place, nor had had powered through the actual physical walls. He was just gone.

Ukitake rushed toward the main office, shouting for someone to send a report to the Head Captain that Ichigo Kurosaki had escaped.

"Really?" Sentaro questioned, shocked. "How is this possible? He could not have escaped without anyone of us noticing, could he?"

Kiyone shook her head. "No, I'm certain that someone would have noticed."

As soon as they had sent out the Hell Butterfly message, a shinigami messenger from the Fifth Division arrived. "A report from several divisions, as well as Head Captain Yamamoto, Captain."

"Go ahead," Ukitake said, confused at what this could possibly be.

"Lieutenants Hinamori, Kira, and Abarai have all escaped from their barracks. Their whereabouts are unknown, and it is considered a priority for standby squads Eight, Nine, Ten, and Thirteen to search for the missing lieutenants and reign them back in."

Captain Ukitake nodded, very unsettled at the idea of the three lieutenants disappearing at the same time that Ichigo Kurosaki disappeared from Squad Thirteen's custody. "Of course. Message received." The Squad Five member charged with message delivery disappeared in a flash of Shunpo.

Captain Ukitake looked to his soldiers, coughing once more before gesturing for them to calm down. They all looked ready to do something outside of what they had been doing. He looked at them, knowing that not a single one of them stood a chance at capturing one of the lieutenants.

"Everyone, you heard the message. You are to try to locate the missing lieutenants, as well as try to locate Ichigo Kurosaki, but you are not to engage them in battle unless you are with a large group. Even then, it is recommended that you alert the barracks immediately upon encountering them."

They all nodded with their orders, running out to try to track down the lieutenants and the Ryoka. They fell into smaller teams lead by the seated officers, but Kiyone stayed behind to man the desks and ensure that there was some kind of order.

"Why don't you get some rest, Captain?" she asked. "You've been active for several hours in the middle of trying to fight back your illness."

Ukitake nodded lightly, noticing that he had not seen his lieutenant in quite some time. He considered sending for him with a Hell Butterfly, if not to at least explain to him the development with Momo and Ichigo. He decided against it in the end, disappearing into his personal barracks with a very capable Third Seat in charge.

* * *

"I don't think you could be more of an idiot, you know that?"

Ichigo stirred awake, his body still wrapped in bandages. He tried to remember the last thing he could, and the image of a blonde lieutenant came to mind, telling him that he was trying to help him save Rukia before knocking him out.

He looked up to see the dark-skinned woman with purple hair, dressed in skin tight clothing and a light orange, almost yellow jacket.

"What happened? Where am I, Yoruichi?"

She gestured around her. "You're in a secret underground training ground that Kisuke and I used back in the day. I snuck into the Squad Thirteen barracks and lifted you myself, with a little help from Uzumaki."

The space was almost identical to the training ground underneath Urahara's shop, albeit this time, there was a very nice hot spring.

"Why did you rush off like that? No matter how much you've improved, you would not be able to defeat Byakuya as you currently are," she said. "If Uzumaki had not rescued you, you wo-"

"Rescued me?" asked Ichigo, shouting as he pointed at the stab wound and the cuts still fresh. Uzumaki must have been the lieutenant he fought. "Does this look like a rescue to you?"

"If he had not stopped you from fighting Byakuya, I'm certain that you would have died. And then what would have happened?"

"I'd be dead. I'd wake up in some small village in the Rukongai, with no memory of who I am, and with no guarantee that I would have reiryoku," he said, his knowledge impressing Yoruichi. At least he paid some attention. "I still doubt that I would have lost."

"No, you would have lost. If you could have possibly pressed him hard enough, you would have forced him to use Bankai, and he would have killed you without question," explained Yoruichi.

"And Bankai is what again?"

She frowned, realizing that he did not pay as much attention as he thought. "Bankai is the most powerful release state of a shinigami's zanpakutou. It can increase your powers tenfold, and Byakuya would not even need that whole ten to kill you."

He scoffed, but she shook her head. "What do you think happened to Chad? Chad was strong enough to fight a captain's shikai, and the captain he was fighting used his Bankai against him."

Ichigo gasped. "Is Chad okay?" The shinigami tried to sense for Chad, but after a few seconds, he found the significantly weak reiatsu signature.

"Yes, he managed to stop Komamura's Bankai long enough to prevent it from killing him in one blow, before he lost consciousness. He's lucky; if he had fought some of the other captain's, he'd be dead right now."

"So where is he then?"

"He's been taken into custody by one of the barracks, and has received minimal health care. They need him alive because they believe that you are connected with a plot that has killed the Captain of Squad Five."

Ichigo could not believe what he was hearing. "Wait, one of the captains died? Murdered?"

"Yes. It does not appear to have happened as the result of a battle, he was just killed in cold blood and pinned to the side of the building," explained Yoruichi. "I believe that it happened from within the shinigami's ranks, because not one of you would be strong enough to take him down either."

Ichigo gulped. "Well, are they really that strong?"

She nodded. "All captains have Bankai. The only one who does not is Kenpachi Zaraki, but you've already defeated him. It's normally a requirement before one can be a captain, but all of this is really besides the point."

"What do you mean?"

"Rukia's execution is in three days time," she explained. "That means I have three days to get you strong enough so that you can get in and get out with her as fast as possible."

Ichigo was fired up at the possibility. "Three days? Three days to get strong enough to defeat a captain?"

She nodded. "Three days to get you to learn Bankai."

* * *

Orihime had been walking for far, far too long down the tunnel. She was starting to wonder if she had passed underneath the walls around the city, but she had not been walking for anywhere near several days, so she figured she was all right. Either way, she had been moving away from the entrance that she had collapsed ever since she started.

She had no idea where she was going, but eventually, she started to feel something coming up. She could feel something, but she did not really know what it could be. She continued to get closer, keeping her noise-level down and her spiritual energy at a bare minimum. When she finally realized what, or rather who, it was, she immediately freaked out.

She found the entrance to the next chamber, trying to open the door as quietly as she could. It was locked from this side of the door, so she opened it carefully and peeked through the crack.

A strangely-dressed man with face paint stood next to a table where someone was strapped down, and he was sticking all kinds of instruments into the man's body. It took several minutes for her to realize that the man was Uryu, the source of the spiritual pressure she was feeling. He was obviously distressed, but unable to break free, and Orihime had to debate on what to do.

The man was a captain, she decided, realizing that the haori was a dead giveaway. There was no way that she was going to go into the room and fight a captain and what looked to be his lieutenant, knowing that she couldn't win. She had to have some self-preservation. But what could she do?

Without warning, some kind of sound started to go off, alarm klaxons interrupting the man's experiments. He cursed under his breath, lifting the instrument he was holding against Uryu's right arm. Orihime gasped as she realized that Uryu was now missing the lower portion of his arm, cut off by the captain.

The man did not immediately leave the room, expecting his subordinates to handle whatever, or whomever was intruding. Was that alarm meant for her, or someone else? Was there someone else breaking into whatever building this was?

"Damn it, Nemu!" he muttered, removing something sticking from his fingertips from Uryu's arm at the elbow, which was where he had made the cut. Needles? "Let's go see what the hell is happening."

Nemu and Kurotsuchi left the room, leaving a now unconscious Uryu lying on the table. She immediately moved forward, and using as little spiritual pressure on the atmosphere as she could, started her healing spell.

The golden light enveloped Uryu in a bubble of restorative reiryoku, and she had to hope this would be enough to heal him. She had to save him quickly enough to ensure that he was conscious, so that she could pull him out of here through the tunnel.

As Shuno and Ayame worked, Orihime worked her fingers through the shield and tried to release the tough leather cords binding him to the table. Eventually, she found the trick and untied them, and once Uryu's hand and right arm were free, she quickly yanked out all of the tubes connected at various points of his body. No alarms sounded, but the monitors along the wall suddenly went blank and filled with error messages.

"Come on, Uryu," she muttered, her confidence failing when she thought of the dead body of Jirobo. She had killed him and her powers had, predictably, failed to restore him. There was a fine line that her Shun Shun Rikka could not cross, and she had to hope that she could heal the Quincy's arm and remove whatever chemicals were keeping him down.

She started to tear up at the possibility of Uryu's right arm being missing forever. He would never be able to hold his bow again, never be able to sew again. Unless Orihime somehow was able to make his arm regenerate like a lizard losing its tail, he would no longer have a right hand. There was far too much blood, and if she didn't do something to the damage, he would bleed out before she could wake him up.

She thought to Sakura, who had explained some techniques during her training with her. She had not explained how to directly remove sedatives, but the shinigami had mentioned something about toxins. She had to wrack her brain, but when she finally remember her words, it caused her to shudder.

_"Poisons in the blood stream are difficult to remove, even for me. There are techniques though, and the first is to supplement your spiritual pressure with their own to help them heal naturally. Then you want to concentrate your reiatsu at several key points, including the heart, the liver, the armpits, and the soles of their feet."_

_"Why for the last two?" asked Orihime, giggling because it sounded silly._

_"The body uses those major sweat glands to remove some of the toxins that the liver detoxifies," explained Sakura. "You would be surprised at how many neutral toxins leave your body through the skin between your toes."_

Orihime decided to try to guide her spirit energy through the shield as a medium, trying to concentrate on those areas that would help remove whatever chemicals. She was not sure if this would even work, considering there are so many differences between healing Kido and her Soten Kisshun. The concepts, however, would hopefully still be beneficial to her abilities, as she knew quite a bit more than she used to about the body and its functions.

She must have sat there for fifteen minutes before she could see improvement, and as each minute ticked by, she grew more and more anxious. The instant that Uryu's skin started to repair itself on his right arm, Orihime fought down the urge to cheer with happiness. In the next instant, the arm began to appear, bit by bit, re-growing from the glowing effect of her spell. It took several moments before she realized that both Uryu's arm, and the glove he was using, were reappearing.

Orihime stared in confusion at the new limb, still attached to the Sanrei Glove that Uryu used as a weapon. Had she somehow teleported the glove that the captain had carried away with him back to Uryu's arm? Or had she caused that to heal too, somehow?

* * *

The moment that her feet passed the disguised monitoring Kido barrier, Sakura cursed. Of course, the reiatsu cloak did not work within the SRDI, and of course, the monitors had picked up on someone's spiritual pressure entering that was not supposed to enter without permission and clearance to enter.

She cursed under her breath, flashing past the guards and hoping the cloak would still make it more difficult for people to detect her, and as the Squad Twelve members began to flock to the entrance, she realized that she was making it past a few of them.

Her senses were not great within the large building with so many twists and turns, but she knew that Uryu would be within Kurotsuchi's personal lab. There was no way that he would allow any of his subordinates, other than perhaps Nemu, experiment on the Quincy. He wanted the pleasure of that himself.

Sakura startled two male members and dispatched them with two quick enhanced jabs to the ribs, her strength leaving a crack in the wall as they fell. She was going to rescue Uryu, no matter the cost, because they had to win.

After speaking to Naruto and scheming with him to allow Yoruichi to go in undetected, grab the unconscious Ichigo from his cell, and get out without a trace, she felt much more at ease with what she was doing. She knew that whomever had killed Captain Aizen was using the Ryoka as easy targets, and she cursed at the idea of someone using that as a distraction to murder one of their own.

Even the people in her own Squad assumed that the Ryoka had somehow murdered the captain in his sleep, and there was no way to convince them that they were simply not strong enough to actually kill a captain. At least, not yet. Most of the time, Sakura doubted that Ichigo would be able to learn Bankai quickly enough, but there were those few moments where she thought that he could, and would, to save Rukia.

She turned down another corner and immediately ran into someone she had not expected. Shikamaru Nara stood before her, seemingly frustrated at the idea that Sakura was the intruder.

"Please tell me that you did not break in here," he muttered, "because I really don't want to deal with it."

"Well, I wish I could say that it wasn't me," she explained, hands moving toward her zanpakutou.

Shikamaru finally sighed, still not taking anything resembling a fighting stance. "What the hell is going on, Sakura? Why are you even here?"

Sakura could almost read his mind. The Third Seat was probably working out the logistics of several possibilities.  _Was she the one who murdered Aizen and is now trying to kill another captain? Is she trying to rescue the Ryoka and help them? Is she doing this for something else entirely?_

Sakura wondered if she could be honest, but what if something went wrong because she was honest? Shikamaru was a good read of character, so he probably could tell what a lie was from the truth.

"I have to save the Quincy," she explained finally, deciding for a version of the truth that only risked herself. Her fingers found the end of her zanpakutou. "I have to protect the Ryoka and make sure that no one gets hurt."

Shikamaru frowned, eyes watching her hand intently. "What? I don't understand. Why would you align yourself against the Seireitei?"

"Come on, Shikamaru, think about it. Is there any reason why you would support a law like this? A law that denies someone the ability to save a family by going to extremes?"

"Extremes that have cost the lives of shinigami in the past by creating monsters? There's a reason why we do not walk around giving humans the ability to fight for themselves, as much as I might enjoy letting them take a share of the work for a change."

Sakura cursed under her breath. "Are you going to let me pass or not? I'm done arguing about this."

Shikamaru sighed, but did not move. That was practically a declaration of war on Shikamaru's terms, and the moment that Sakura moved to push past him, the Third Seat moved in the same moment, and steel slid across steel in an instant.

"Let me pass!" Sakura shouted, pressing forward with pulses of her energy at the end of every syllable. Shikamaru did not let up, fighting back.

The Squad Eight member fired a Byakurai, trying to get past her guard and create an opening, but Sakura managed to deflect it with the flat of her zanpakutou. She countered with a sudden roundhouse kick, invisible reiatsu flowing around her foot as she collided against Shikamaru, throwing him through a wall.

Sakura shot forward, hoping to get to the next room and keep moving toward the lab. In that brief moment, she suddenly realized that she could feel Orihime's spiritual pressure somewhere beneath the lab, near where Uryu's own was stirring. But a now bleeding and bruised Shikamaru reminded her of why he was one of the fastest lazy people she knew, intercepting her with a sudden slash to the thigh.

Sakura brought up her own sword, and the Squad Eight officer reflexively stopped a possibly fatal slash to the neck, his eyes widening when he realized there had been no hesitation. Sakura had to keep him from analyzing her, getting past her guard with his intelligence. Unpredictability.

Knowing there were ways to keep him down, she bounced backward on the balls of her feet, evading a slice to the chest before continuing the move and flipping backward, kicking Shikamaru in the stomach and sending him flying several yards.

He huffed, realizing that he needed to think harder than he was. She could see it on his face, and it genuinely terrified her.  _"Split, Kakusayami!"_

The instant that the black figure appeared, holding a katana made of shadow, Sakura cursed, realizing the disadvantage of this. Shikamaru had all the time in the world to think while she's fighting his zanpakutou's shikai. She just had to press harder.

"Shakkaho!" The fiery ball of light streaked from her palm, colliding with the doppleganger but doing no real damage. Sakura moved forward as the smoke started to fade, trying to blast through it and cut Shikamaru himself, but the black blade caught her on the back of the shin, cutting her concentration. She fell to the ground, rolling to recover, and throwing up her sword to stop a downward strike from the dark clone.

She had to do something, and it was almost the only thing she could do at this point. Shikamaru was far too good at the ends and outs of Bakudo for that to work, and he could use his shikai to intercept any Hado. She really had only one weapon, but she had to be sure it would work.

 _"Incapacitate, Dokushibireru!"_ Sakura's weapon grew into a needle-like rapier blade with a notch on the side depicting how much of her immobilizing fluid she had.

She pointed the zanpakutou toward the enemy's clone warrior and fired her first shot of the liquid like it was a dart. Shikamaru cursed, and both he and Kakusayami evaded it quickly. The instant that the liquid hit the wall, Sakura fired a Sokatsui into the area where Kakusayami had landed. The blue crackling flame exploded against the dark soldier, and Sakura blazed forward.

Shikamaru wished that he had a sword because evading her was starting to get more difficult. His zanpakutou was still stuck in the debris of the collapsed wall to their left, so he had to use Shunpo and other Hoho techniques to get out of the way of her rapier.

The Fourth Seat of Squad Four finally pushed past him, a fist landing on his ribs as she guessed correctly where he was going to be when he dodged her strike. She quickly aimed her zanpakutou, the fluid hitting Shikamaru in the left leg and completely immobilizing the spiritons that made up part of his thigh. Shikamaru could not move that part of his leg, stuck in mid-movement and literally paralyzed in position. It was almost as though part of his leg was frozen in time.

"It'll go away soon," Sakura explained. "I promise."

She had to get to the lab because Kurotsuchi was there, and Orihime would not be able to handle him. She looked back for a moment, watching Nara re-sheathe his now sealed zanpakutou. He had a sour look on his face, and Sakura knew that he did not like being outwitted. She did not have time to think about the consequences of her actions.

* * *

Orihime was practically happy crying the moment that Uryu awoke, his full glove and hand restored. She broke the shield, knowing that she did not need to use any more energy than she had to, putting her Rikka back in place.

"Oh, Uryu, I'm so glad that you and your hand are all right!" she said excitedly, helping him stand up. He was still weak, probably too weak to move, but they had to get out of there.

"My hand?" he asked, raising it to inspect it.

"That captain cut it off!" she said, almost in awe of her own power. "But it grew back under my Soten Kisshun!"

"Really? Amazing!"

Orihime pointed toward the tunnel she found, thinking it would be better to leave through there than it would be to leave through the entire complex they were in now. "We can get out through there. That's how I got in, and I'm sure there's another way out to the surface!"

Uryu looked conflicted and did not move for several moments. He looked from the exit to her and back toward the door to the Institute. "You go. Get out of here while you can, I'm staying."

"What? What are you talking about, Uryu?"

"I can't possibly leave without an arrow through that shinigami's heart! On my pride as a Quincy, Orihime, I have to stay and fight for the memory of my grandfather!"

"But-"

Uryu shuffled her toward the tunnel's entrance, a secret panel that slid away from the wall. "Go! I'll find you later, I promise!"

It took several seconds for her to finally agree, but she still did not feel good about the decision. Uryu nodded and wished her lucky, disappearing into the bowels of the Institute. After all that time having been split up, she finally found someone on her side and he forced them to split up again.

* * *

He was almost glad that the Ryoka invasion was going on, because it gave him the perfect opportunity to really cut loose, to train on controlling the Kyuubi where no one would question his abrupt rises in spiritual pressure. They would just assume that he was fighting.

The stress and anger of the past few weeks were going to be fuel for the Kyuubi. He was itching to release it, despite knowing what kind of damage it was doing to him from the inside. The physical energy within spiritual matter was easy to interact when Naruto allowed it, but it left some lasting uneasiness and possible instability. If he used it for extensive amounts of time, his movements would be jerky and painful for hours, sometimes longer, before they recovered. It was terrifying and it made far more sense to just ignore it.

But he couldn't ignore it. The desire to use it, the desire to break free was always there. Naruto had not used it for anything in particular, outside of occasional training to use it, until that day, to make sure that Ichigo did not fight Byakuya on that bridge. The cost was too great, and without the right kind of sealing modification, using the fox's chakra to support his reiryoku could kill him.

Naruto breathed in and out for a long moment, pulling on the fox's power. Instantly, his spiritual pressure started to intensify, solidifying into a solid red aura round his body like a cloak of energy. He could feel the power augmenting his muscles, changing his vision and enhancing his senses. His nails elongated and sharpened, and three energy appendages expanded from the still transparent cloak behind him.

Naruto could control three tails easily, but for only a few minutes. Speed, strength, power... He had this much of it under his control, and it expanded all of his abilities. Kusaritane did not change, but his capabilities with it expanded by becoming so much faster and stronger. The Kyuubi was like an extra energy pool, something he could use when in a pinch for a few brief moments to change the tide of battle.

He rushed through the forest, moving like he did when he was a shinobi from the Konohagakure, arms to the back and running. He wished he had kunai and shuriken, just to really complete the image. It honestly felt like home to him, and he felt sad.

Quickly using one tail as a blunt instrument, he slammed it against the trunk of a tree and then wrapped the other tails around it, the power enough to crunch it to bits. The oak tree fell to the ground, knocking another tree over behind it.

He brought his hands and his tails together in an instant, snapped the same space, and a wave of air expelled outward, strong enough to bend back several trees.

Naruto forced his tails to snap the ground at the same time as he jumped, and in a powerful leap, he must have gone fifty feet in the air, angling toward the ground with his tails outstretched. The moment of impact caused the forest to crumble around him until there was a new clearing, like he had created a crop circle out of the ancient trees.

He settled down for a few seconds, and the fox was anxious and wanted to keep moving through him. Why are you stopping now? You've still got plenty of time left, and I'm bored!

Naruto shook his head, bottling up the Kyuubi bit by bit. The fox-like characteristics faded, steam rolling off of his body as the makeshift chakra cloak started to vanish. The skin underneath the black ink of the seal burned, and probably would burn for the next day. He felt sated, however, oddly enough. As though some part of him wanted the Kyuubi to be set free, some part of him craved the power coursing through his veins. He enjoyed the absolute power, and he could only imagine what kind of power he could unleash if he ever learned how to use all nine tails.

 _"It's not time for that now,"_  he muttered inside his mind. It was a great stress reliever, even if he had to pay the price with a little bit of pain later. Naruto, oddly enough, liked the fact that the pain was always expected after he used the fox's chakra. It was expected, it was concrete, it was quantifiable. He did not always know what life would throw at him, but he did know that the Kyuubi's aftereffects could be expected and controlled.

He hurried back to the barracks, using Shunpo to get there faster. He was almost there when he ran into Toshiro, who was running in the opposite direction. Naruto touched down next to him. "Toshiro, what's going on?"

Before Toshiro could actually answer, someone else approached and the captain skidded to a stop. Walking toward Naruto and Toshiro was Captain Ichimaru and Lieutenant Kira, the latter of which should have been in custody until the investigation was over.

"I suspected I'd find you together," the Squad Ten captain said, not looking at Naruto immediately. Kira tried to say something, probably to defend himself, but Toshiro cut him off. "I suspected that you were behind this, because out of the three lieutenants' cells, Kira's was the only one that had been unlocked from the outside."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Momo escaped?" He had not expected that of her. He had never thought to seal her spiritual pressure to prevent her from using Kido, so that was probably how she would have escaped.

"Yes, she has." Toshiro turned back to the white-haired captain with a permanent smirk. "If you didn't want to be caught, you should have been more careful. That was careless, even for you, Gin."

"It's funny that you would accuse me of being careless," Gin began, "when the fact of the matter is that I left it that way on purpose so that you would know."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Naruto shouted, interrupting Toshiro's reply. He could not help but fluctuate his reiatsu, but the opposing captain did not make a move himself. It was all starting to add up to Aizen's murder in his head, and he felt the same rage that Momo felt.

"Me? There's nothing wrong with me," Gin stated. "Why would you think having a little bit of fun is so wrong?"

"You think letting Kira go is a 'little bit of fun'?" asked Toshiro.

"And killing your colleague? Was that something you enjoyed?" Naruto and Toshiro moved to draw their swords at the same time, and Gin did not change his stance. Kira looked shocked, as though he was about to be caught between a rock and a hard place.

Someone arrived just then, landing on the wooden floor of the courtyard. Naruto hesitated to finish his maneuver the moment he realized it was Momo, and he was going to run over to see if she was all right, as well as to get her out of the way of Gin, but she threw him a death glare and the killing intent toward both he and Toshiro was powerful and nearly suffocating. The confusion was practically scarred across both Naruto's and Toshiro's faces.

"I found you, just in time. I'm glad I'm not too late," she said, standing up.

"Don't do this, Momo! You're no match for him! I'll handle this!" Toshiro shouted. Naruto remembered her argument with him after she had been captured, about how he had taken her agency away. He had vented to Sakura, but his view on the matter was the same. Momo could not fight Ichimaru, or she would die.

The moment that her sword was turned on him and Toshiro was the moment that his heart plummeted, eyes widening. "What are you doing?"

"Momo?"

She looked at them with determination. "I'm not going to allow that beast inside of you to kill another captain, Naruto."

* * *

Uryu tracked Captain Kurotuchi's spirit ribbon, thankful that he was close. Uryu, despite having been restored by Orihime's miraculous abilities, could not move at full capacity. His powers were still at his full control, and somehow, she had healed the glove too as though it had been a living thing. Uryu wished that he had an explanation for it, but he could not think of anything better than that.

The moment that he found Kurotuschi, Uryu raised his right arm and materialized his Quincy bow, pulling on the spirit particles of the SRDI's instruments and walls and odd liquids to create powerful arrow aimed right for the shinigami's heart.

"Turn around and face me!" Uryu shouted, knowing that Kurotsuchi would know he was there.

The captain whirled around, glancing at something that Uryu was suddenly very clear was his preserved hand in a jar, glove still intact. Mayuri held it as though it was some kind of trophy, but when he realized that Uryu had somehow regenerated a lost limb, he was watching the Quincy with such interested eyes that it made the boy feel a little bit uncomfortable.

"Ooh, amazing! I would have asked if this was somehow a Qunicy ability that I did not know about, but I already know all about the Ryoka girl's abilities. Did you know that she haphazardly restored her own opponent, a man in Squad Seven, from the brink of death? Knowing how his injuries were lined up, he had a scar running down the entire length of his body, on both sides, as though he had been cut clean through and then reassembled. And he's still standing today." Mayuri smiled, a bit peeved by the prospects. "I guess the main question is how she managed to get down there to you, but I think I have an idea. It's a shame really. She would have been a good research specimen."

Instantly, there was a large explosion, an explosion that rocked the foundation of the building. Uryu whipped his head around, feeling the spiritual pressure of the explosion.

He cried out when he realized where it had occurred. "Orihime!"


	22. Get It Right

Sakura burst into the room filled with lab equipment, finding traces of both Orihime and Uryu's spiritual pressures. She scanned the area, realizing that Orihime must have come in and healed Uryu, and they both left in opposite directions. He probably forced her to flee while he went after the captain, which was possibly the most idiotic decision she had heard in a long time.

There was a door hidden in the wall, the other side so dark that only faint light could be seen on the other side. She tried to open her spiritual senses again, looking for a more prominent signal, and she realized that Orihime had run into that room, and Uryu had left to head back toward the upper floors. She must have passed him somehow without realizing it.

"Damn it," Sakura cursed, preparing to head back to Uryu. She was sure that no one had gone after Orihime yet, so she was hoping she could prevent anyone from trying by covering her tracks.

Movement caught on the corner of her eye, and Sakura moved her arms just in time to catch the fist heading for her face. The force of her attacker pressed her backwards onto one knee, and it took a second to realize who it was.

"Lieutenant Kurotsuchi!" Sakura shouted. "What are you doing? I saw all the commotion and thought I woul-"

"You're lying," Nemu said blankly, spinning her stance on one foot and kicking outward. Sakura took the kick to the face and spun into the nearest wall, cracking it from the impact. The lieutenant raised an arm, and it suddenly spun around so rapidly that it looked like some form of drill. "You're the intruder."

Sakura stood up as soon as she was able to recover, eyes focused on reading Nemu's movements. "Yeah, you're right." Sakura slid her blade back into her sheath, taking a fighting stance. Her Hakuda was easily strong enough to fight Nemu, she just had to be careful that she avoided any of Kurotsuchi's nasty surprises. The powerfully-spinning hand was testament of the fact that the devious captain had performed his experiments even on Nemu.

The lieutenant moved to strike, aiming the drill toward Sakura's collarbone with some form of spinning jab. Sakura leaned back, evading the strike and using the momentum to bring a diagonal kick to Kurotsuchi's side. Nemu flew several feet before restoring her balance and rushing forward again, this time with new information.

"It appears that you are good at Hakuda, Fourth Seat," explained Nemu after several more confrontations where the two women were clashing and parrying and blocking with a flurry of limbs. "Perhaps better than I, and I am an experiment designed for near perfect skill with hand to hand combat."

The drill-like strike had already grazed Sakura's left arm, shredding a few layers of skin that she worked diligently to heal between breaths. "I've noticed, although you're cheating a bit. Or at least, your captain is. What's the point of being good at something if you're designed to be good at it?" Sakura jumped up on one foot, slamming a fist into Nemu's chest powerfully enough that she could have sworn that she cracked a rib. Nemu showed no visible reaction to the pain.

"Why fight perfect design? Surely my master is perfect, and that his machines and designs are perfect. I was nothing before my master came along and made me into who I am." Nemu brushed a hand over her chest lightly, running a small diagnostic on the wound.

"Perfect design my ass!" In a move that she had invented herslef, Sakura jumped forward and slammed into the earth, pouring her reiatsu into a focused blast that caused the ground to burst apart beneath Nemu.

In the short moment where the lieutenant was distracted, Sakura dashed toward her and delivered a kick that sent Nemu literally flying into the nearest wall and cracking it apart. The pink-haired shinigami panted lightly, feeling the fatigue of fighting two strong opponents back to back already gaining on her.

"Seriously? You're getting up again?" When Nemu started to move, Sakura raised a palm and fired a powerful blast of red energy. The Kido exploded against her opponent and the dent in the wall, scorching her with concentrated reiryoku.

She felt a light ping on her radar, and in one split second, she saw the dark figure enter the room at the same time that Orihime found the lab again. "Sakura! Are you hurt?"

Instantly, the familiar shadow soldier grabbed her from behind, holding a sword to the screaming Ryoka's neck. Sakura shot a glance back, seeing an unevenly standing Shikamaru at the doorway.

"Let her go! She's not going to harm anyone!"

Shikamaru pondered her request a moment, and Sakura realized that there were way too many things happening at the same time. She had to keep an eye on Shikamaru's Shikai holding Orihime at bay, on the probably recovering lieutenant at the base of the wall in front of her, and on Shikamaru himself.

"No. You're wrong. She will hurt someone," he explained. "She already has, but I bet you know that, don't you?"

Something that Yoruichi had said earlier caught in her mind, but she had not had time to process it. She peered at Orihime, and despite the fact that the human was crying, Sakura could tell there was something different about her brown eyes. The eyes of a guilty killer.

"I knew that you did," Shikamaru said, almost in triumph upon reading Sakura's expression. "She killed Jirobo the Wind Scythe, of Squad Seven."

Sakura's eyes widened. Yoruichi had not told her all the details, but this was still news. "Orihime..."

The girl was crying now, harder than before. "I didn't mean to! I swear! He was attacking me!" The guilt was probably crushing her.

"Stop." Shikamaru cut her off. "I'm not finished. I'm not even from Squad Twelve, but I want to study this girl. Do you know why, Sakura? Because she killed Jirobo and then brought him back to life."

Immediately, Sakura choked, and she had to fight to actually keep her guard up around everything that was happening. "You... resurrected someone?" She wanted to know why Yoruichi had not mentioned this.

Orihime was so astounded by her own powers that she nearly didn't say anything at first. "No, he was dead when I left him. There's no way that's true! It's impossible!"

Shikamaru shook his head. "No. It's true and apparently possible. Jirobo was cut cleanly in half and then restored. I imagine that with proper training, she could have finished the job without causing the scar that outlines where her cut took place. This, in pure potential, is better than anything Squad Four could have ever thought of doing."

It was true, there was no doubt about that. If Shikamaru was right that Jirobo died, there was no coming back to life. Sakura looked on the human girl in awe, wondering why she even existed. Why she could have the abilities that she did.

"It doesn't matter, Nara. Let her go!" Sakura shouted, preparing her dwindling reiatsu for another fight. She was getting more and more exhausted by the second. "She'll be of no use to anyone if she's dead!"

Shikamaru looked like he was appalled at the accusation that he would harm her, and yet his zanpakutou did not move its shadowy blade from her throat. The crying girl could not even bring herself to struggle, to raise a hint of power, and Sakura frowned.

But before anyone could say anything at all, the lieutenant finally peeled herself from the wall and stepped toward the center of the room, with very complex and calculated movements. Each step was taken with oddly robotic precision, and Sakura could only brace herself.

What was Nemu going to do? Release her Shikai? Attack? Calm everyone down with a lullaby? Sakura knew this day could not get any more complicated.

"I'm afraid that I have to respond to my master's orders," she explained, gesturing to literally everyone. "He simply cannot risk having the secret exposed."

"What secret?" asked Sakura, glad for the temporary distraction. If Nemu could divert Shikamaru's attention away, the Fourth Seat of Squad Four could flash-step over to Orihime and pull her from the zanpakutou's grasp.

She would not get an answer. In the next moment, a surge of spiritual pressure, a blinding and searing flash, erupted from Nemu's body. Sakura lost consciousness in the following instant as the pain and force overtook her.

* * *

"Orihime!" shouted Uryu again, prepared to rush back to the inside of the building to try to save her. He knew she was involved, could feel her presence. Now it was gone, and he had never felt more angry in his life.

"It's a pity, really. I've already guessed that she's something special, but she got too close to one of my experiments. I had to end her life, as well as the lives of those who attempted to rescue her," the Captain said callously, pressing a hand to his ear. He nodded once. "Yes, it appears that the intruder to the lab, the one who caused all of this mess, is named Sakura Haruno, a high-seated officer of Squad Four. She was caught in the explosion, and it isn't likely that she lived."

Sakura. Orihime. The man had murdered both of them, the same man who murdered his grandfather. He may not have known Sakura very well, but she had been an important figure to Chad and Orihime.

Instantly, his bow clicked to life, reishi extending from the glove and solidifying into its solid blue and white state. A fiery arrow, filled with his tumultuous anger, aimed directly toward the diabolical monster.

"You. Are. A. Fiend!" Each word was punctuated by an pulsing arrow. The blasts of light were not very refined, shaking with his emotions, and he did not bother to correct them. He let the energy fly from his fingertips, aided by the Sanrei glove that Orihime had somehow repaired with her powers.

Mayuri haphazardly dodged the first two projectiles, and casted a simple barrier for the following two. He tossed the pierced shield of Kido away and it shattered against the ground as though made of glass. "I suppose fiend is the best word you heathens could come up with. Of course you cannot understand me, and I don't expect you to comprehend the very notion of my methods. They are absolute and should not be questioned!"

"Absolute?" Uryu fired another shot, using Hirenyaku to slide along the ground and change the angles of fire, in order to confuse the enemy as he talked. "The only thing absolute is that you killed my friends! You killed my grandfather! Who do you think you are?"

The man introduced himself simply, and Uryu nearly roared in reply. Arrows continued to fall, like rain piercing through the sorrowful night.

* * *

Momo's words did not truly register to Naruto before several things suddenly became clear. He tried to number them off in his head, just to keep track.

_One: Ganryu and his banished clan gave him the Kyuubi in the Valley of Screams. Two: During that whole debacle, there was an informant who told the enemy of the Kido Cannon, and they learned how to counter it in time through the Shinenju and her connection to the dimension. Three: I did not tell anyone of the seal and the Kyuubi within my body. Four: That event and Hinamori's last sentence must be connected, probably through the informant._

"What are you talking about, Momo?" asked Toshiro.

"Yes, I'm curious as well..." Gin said darkly. Naruto peered at him, still believing that it could have been him.

Hinamori's sword gestured toward Naruto's stomach. "Captain Aizen's letter! He explained it all! Hidden inside of him is an ancient beast of monstrous strength. Naruto, that thing has been taking over your body! You killed Aizen, but I know it wasn't your fault! It's the creature inside you!"

Naruto immediately shook his head. "No, Momo, it doesn't work like-"

"My, my. I did not expect you to say that," Gin interrupted. "It seems that you admit that there _is_  a beast living within you. And better yet, you know how it works. What else haven't you been telling her?"

Momo's frown hardened. The young captain turned to Naruto, his cold gaze very calculating. "Is this all true? Naruto, please, tell us what's going on. If anyone deserves to know, it's us."

Too many things were running through his mind, but one thing was clear. The Kyuubi's voice barked, Well, I gotta give the puppeteer of this credit. Momo probably sees all of your lies like they were my fault; she probably forgives you now, and hates me. This is nearly as complex as those political games the Elemental Nations played with me and my kind.

 _"Is it even possible for you to possess me?"_  asked Naruto in his head, already knowing that the answer was probably no.

Not in the way that she's describing. The seal prevents total take-over; I can flood your chakra though, make your inhibitions die away. I can't force you to do something that you don't want to do. Persuasion is another thing though. The fox chuckled a snide laugh from behind the wooden prison in his mindscape. Of course, I suppose I could transform fully and have control, if you gave in completely. But you would know if that happened, because there would no longer be anything for you to stand on.

Naruto sighed, hoping that confessing the truth would gain him some points. "Yes, there is a monster there." He showed them the seal, blank ink twisted in a spiral combination of kanji. "It's a powerful creature made of physical energy. It's the same thing that was sealed inside of me when I was alive." Hitsugaya's eyes were as wide as saucers, and Momo was trying not to cry, fighting not to believe what she had read. "Momo, the fox cannot take over my body like this. I would know if it tried."

"There's no reason to believe you." Momo did not lower her sword, and Naruto wished that he knew what was running through everyone's mind around him. Gin had an unreadable face, and Toshiro looked as though he had never seen the blonde before. Izuru had a similar expression. "Not after everything that you've lied about! If I take you down myself, no one else has to get hurt!"

Naruto did not want to draw for his sword, but Momo's look of determination was growing. She seemed to genuinely want to do what was best for him, and in her eyes, it was getting rid of the creature possessing him. To do that, she would probably have to capture him, knock him unconscious, so that she could analyze the seal and try to break it with Kido. Naruto wished that he knew of a way to get rid of it that wouldn't kill him and release the beast. The Nine Phantom Dragons Jutsu was impossible, even if he wanted to sacrifice himself to get rid of it.

Naruto tried to figure out a way to word it. "Momo, as great as you are at Kido, I don't think there's a way to pull it from my soul without killing me."

The words seemed to shock her, caused her to waver for a moment, and Naruto hoped he could use the opening to convince her to stop. "It will die if I die. But even with all of that, there is no way that I did this to Aizen. The Kyuubi could not have done this to Aizen."

"Don't talk about Aizen, you monster!" Instantly, her blade transformed and collided with Naruto's own. He managed to draw it in time to flimsily parry the attack. "You're taking him over now, aren't you? Aizen's letter said that you could do it at will, you foul beast! Why should I trust your words over his?!"

Naruto blocked several more strikes, and everyone else was watching in rapt silence. Why had Toshiro not intervened? Why was Ichimaru just standing there? What did the two captains think about him? Did they believe Aizen's letter over him?

"How could you take his side? How could you believe him?" Naruto pleaded, continually backtracking and never making any movement that could be considered offensive. Momo was swinging wildly, the pronged zanpakutou very unfocused. It did not seem that she was going for the kill or fighting to her best ability. Naruto knew he was stronger than her, but he didn't want to fight back.

"He's been good to me! He's treated me right! I should have known about Rukia from the beginning! I should have known about your efforts to ensure that she had enough time to recover her powers! I should have known about that creature inside you the day that it happened!" Each sentence was punctuated by a flurry of exhaustive slashes that would have cut a lesser man to ribbons. Naruto knew she had better in her than that, and the more she fought, the more he wondered if she was starting to get over her subconscious fear that he would be hurt by her. "You haven't been open with me, so why should I believe you now? I bet the Kyuubi is controlling you, making you say these things to save your own ass!" She raised a blade, pink spiritual pressure flowing off of the zanpakutou. "Tobiume!"

The explosive fireball left her weapon, flying toward the ground at Naruto's feet. The lieutenant managed to jump away from it in time, but the scorching heat still caused painful burns to appear on his shins. Kusaritane was itching for release, just for a protective measure, but Naruto mentally refused the blade's spirit. He didn't want to hurt her, but it was getting harder not to stop her.

"Toshiro, please!" Naruto pleaded, hoping for an intervention from the captain. "Do you really think that I did this?"

The captain was initially conflicted, but his jaw eventually set in stone. "It's entirely possible. I don't know anything about this Kyuubi or whatever the hell you call it, so I wouldn't know if you're lying or not about its capabilities. Why would I trust your word when you can't share that obviously important piece of information?"

Naruto screamed in desperate agony, hoping for some kind of miracle. He had backed himself into a corner. All of his lies and deceptions had caught up with him, and even if it had been for the best to keep them secret, it had backfired. If he had been forthright with the Kyuubi the day that it happened, he might have been experimented on and killed, just to eliminate a threat. Now he was going to be killed for the same reason, just a few years later.

"Damn it! Momo, you have to believe me! I love you too much to let this happen! Please, put down your sword and I'll convince you that I'm telling the truth!"

She shook her head, tears rolling down her face. "No. Captain Hitsugaya, Captain Ichimaru! Help me arrest him! We'll study the seal and see if we can remove it."

Naruto shook his head, knowing that that was a death wish. Central 46 would never allow him to exist. "Toshiro, please! Don't! Remember what happened to Kusaka! This is the same thing! I can't help the fact that I have this power!"

Ichimaru began to walk toward him, but Toshiro was rooted in place. He remembered his friend. Kusaka had been gifted with the same zanpakutou, and Central 46 had ordered the boy's execution because of it. They had no reason to do that; both Hyorinmaru should have been able to exist. Toshiro remembered the look of shock and desperation on his friend's face.

The captain moved in one single motion, stepping in between Naruto and Ichimaru. "I'm not going to lose another friend because I was too afraid to act. You have a lot of explaining to do, Naruto, when we get out of this mess."

Naruto's stress level receded almost instantly. Knowing that he had Toshiro on his side was enough.

The silver-haired captain immediately turned to the other captain, hand on his sword.

"I can't say that I expected you to take his side," Gin said. "Considering your loyalty to the Soul Society and to Momo, I never pegged you for a traitor."

Toshiro growled. "I don't really care what you think of me, but don't believe for a second that this has taken you off of my suspect list. You could have killed Aizen just as easily!" Spiritual pressure flowed off of him, and the air instantly became colder.

Naruto had fought alongside Hitsugaya often enough to know the implications of his spiritual power. He had to get Momo and Izuru out of there. He turned his attention to the girl in front of him, as she prepared another blast of energy. The blonde twisted in mid-air, and with a slash of focused reiatsu, he cut through Tobiume's fireball and the heat and explosive power filled the air. The lieutenant flew through the smoke cloud and landed directly in front of Momo.

He had to try to bind her, stop her from fighting. The cold pressure coming from Toshiro's fight was still radiating through the area, and while Naruto was strong enough to avoid it, he was worried for Momo's safety. Knowing her versatility with Kido, he had to go for something stronger. "Bakudo Number Sixty-three: Sajo Sabaku!" He closed his hand in a fist, and yellow bonds of energy, resembling the chains of his zanpakutou's Shikai, appeared. Instantly, they tightened around Hinamori, preventing her from moving her upper body at all.

He had to continually fluctuate the amount of power he put into it, trying to keep her guessing so that she couldn't analyze it and break it with her reiryoku control.

He made to grab her around the middle, chains and all, to carry her away from the silver-haired captain's fight, but Kira had other plans. The other lieutenant fired a quick dispelling Kido, a charged pulse of white reiryoku that caused the chains to dissipate.

"I can't allow you to hurt her, Naruto! I don't want you to hurt anyone else!" The other lieutenant raised his zanpakutou, standing at Momo's side.

"If we don't get out of here, we're all going to be hurt by Hitsugaya's Shikai! You know that as well as I do, Momo!" Naruto pleaded.

"I'll take my chances!" Izuru replied, his zanpakutou suddenly snapped into its crooked position with a flash of blue light. Wabisuke found its way into the battle, and Naruto frowned. His odds were thinning.

"Fine. You leave me no choice!" Naruto's blade followed theirs into Shikai, the gauntlet on his arm preparing to launch the dagger at both of them. Kusaritane purred in his mind, glad to be of service finally. She didn't like being cooped up inside Naruto's head, especially opposite the Kyuubi.

Instantly, the dagger flew at Kira, and it moved out of the way of Wabisuke's counter in time to slash into the blonde lieutenant's shoulder. Kira cursed, attempting to rush at Naruto while his chain was launched. Momo moved in as well, and Naruto backtracked as quickly as he could, using Shunpo across the battlefield to return his blade quickly. He managed to raise Kusaritane's arm bracer fast enough to stop Kira's downward slash to his chest, but he could already feel the weight doubling.

He had a countermeasure, but he planned on using it later, if necessary. "It'll take more than that for me!" Naruto rushed him, moving right into the path of one of Tobiume's fireballs. The blonde reflexively wrapped Kusaritane around Izuru's arm, yanking him into the path of Momo's attack. The heat exploded, impacting hard against Izuru's left arm.

Naruto's face was scorched, and Kira's entire left side was nearly unusable. The air was getting heavier, Toshiro's icy presence drawing in the humidity. Naruto caught a glimpse of a white icy dragon in the corner of his eye, and he knew that he had to get the battle away from the two captains.

The Squad Thirteen lieutenant wished that he knew what Gin's capabilities were. He had never seen the captain in action, but he had heard rumors of his zanpakutou's capabilities. He had to get out of there before the captain released Shinso.

"Izuru! I didn't want you to get hurt!" Hinamori shouted, energy flowing off of her in waves of dark pink. Her mouth began to chant, not loud enough for Naruto to follow, and he had to do something before she sent a combination of powerful Kido in his direction. "Naruto, if you're still in there somewhere, I'll make it up to you when that fox is gone!"

The shinigami cursed, immediately heading toward her with two steps of Shunpo. He expelled his own reiryoku, molding it to his will, into a combination of his own. He had to defend against her own capabilities.

Light flashed from Hinamori's fingertips, and a thin tendril of yellow energy left her palm. She struck outward, like she was snapping a whip, and the air crackled with red heat as it exploded near him.  _A combination of Hainawa and Shakkaho_ , he noted.

Naruto extended his chained dagger and instantly rotated it like a propeller. The instant that the faint spinning energy combined with his weapon, he followed the Enkosen with a Rikujokoro. Yellow rods of light expanded from the spinning energy, covering his front in a binding shield.

The instant that the whip collided with the shield, the Shakkaho exploded, but the energy froze in place in mid explosion. Her Hainawa whip was frozen in place, and tiny rods of yellow light ran down the length of her Kido. She couldn't let go fast enough, and the binding effect of Naruto's Bakudo wrapped around Momo's body.

Naruto let the Enkosen fade, instantly snapping his dagger in Izuru's direction. The chain extended and hit Wabisuke, doubling again and wrapping around the hooked blade. The lieutenant snaked the dagger down the blade and hooked into Izuru's right wrist. Kira yelled in pain, unable to let go of his grip thanks to the dagger holding his zanpakutou in place.

Expelling reiatsu, he forced both Momo and Izuru to their knees. He could no longer feel the cold reiatsu from Hitsugaya's battle, his own shielding him from its effects. He was sure that the other two lieutenants were going to succumb to the effects, and their blood and bodies would begin to cool to dangerous levels.

Another pulse of his power, and both of his opponents were knocked unconscious. They had to get to safety and Naruto could not bear to see Momo hurt. The lieutenant retracted his zanpakutou from Kira's sword, pulling it back into the bracer's launch position. Within seconds, he had both of them over his shoulders, and he could feel the captains' impressive spiritual pressures clashing behind him while he ran.

* * *

Uryu coughed, his entire body riddled with cuts and still under the effect of the poisons. Every single cell in his body was in pain from the sheer volume of power that had consumed him. And it had been for nothing.

The slimy captain had turned into slime and escaped into the depths of the hell he crawled from. Somehow, Mayuri had survived his greatest attack, and now Uryu was running on fumes. The Sanrei Glove had eliminated all but the barest trace of his powers. He knew that some part of him still had spiritual power because he could see and feel spiritual energy around him, but he had nothing left. Ishida could not even attempt to summon the simplest of bows, no craft any reishi into any form. He had nothing left.

He raced as fast as his body could, which was actually painfully slow, to try to find Orihime and Sakura. He wanted to see if they were all right, and maybe if he was lucky, he could sift through the debris and locate them.

It only took him a few moments to realize that if he wanted to do that, he would have to fight through the guards and scientists, and it wouldn't work. They would have buffed up security in response to Sakura's infiltration.

Sakura was dead. Orihime was dead. And Uryu could do nothing.

He collapsed almost in pain, landing on the shadow cast by the glowing torch on the wall. He must have sat still for so long, unable to move from the spot in case one of his friends appeared outside of the lab. But he could not feel hopeful. Not anymore.

The shinigami had caused so much death in his life. And now he no longer had the ability to fight back. He cursed under his breath.

He did not even notice the shadows start to move toward his position, and within seconds, he fell into them like they were a puddle of water.

* * *

Shikamaru awoke and tried very hard not to cough immediately, wincing at the pain in the back of his head and shoulders. His vision blurred, everything a mix of orange and black before him. He was slumped against a wall, his sealed zanpakutou lying on the ground beside him.

His eyes finally cleared, and he was astounded at the sight. The human girl was standing, hands held high above her head touching the surface of her powers. Using some kind of shield power, she was holding the rubble of the ceiling from collapsing on a small corner of the room.

Sakura lay unconscious only yards from him, blood and nasty burns covering her front. Shikamaru knew he must look similar, as they had been standing near Nemu Kurotsuchi when she exploded violently.

He considered the human before him, wondering how she managed to be strong enough to shield them from the explosion and to stop the room from collapsing. There had to be enough power behind that to collapse several floors of the large building, and all of that was being held by what looked far too thin and fragile at first glance.

This girl was remarkable. She had been strong enough to carry on after nearly being raped. She had the ability to raise the dead, and it became clear to him that she must have nearly killed her attackers. She had killed Jirobo, someone of fourth seat level, and she was most likely approaching lieutenant level strength, if not barely touching it. Orihime Inoue was a strong person, and Shikamaru had to marvel at her for a moment, Ryoka or not.

Seconds passed before he realized that she could not hold it forever. The moment that cracks began to appear in the shield, Shikamaru realized something needed to be done or they would be crushed. Calling on his spiritual power, he summoned the strongest barrier that he could and erected it around them, just inside the space of her shield.

She seemed startled, but he coughed. "It was me. You can let go now. We're safe for a little while."

The orange barrier cracked away as though she were relieved, and the debris collided against the dark green barrier with a loud sound. Shikamaru tested its strength, and it held.

It seemed only seconds later that Orihime realized that he was an enemy, and she took a fighting stance. He scoffed at the idea of fighting her, not sure if he could find a way to defeat her with so many injuries all over his body. "Don't bother; I don't want to fight you. Unless you want Sakura to die, I'd get to work on her. I don't know any healing Kido."

He didn't move, but simply turned to watch as the girl finally knelt down and erected a glowing orange hemisphere of light that surrounded Sakura. She looked between the pink-haired shinigami and Shikamaru, unsure of what to do. After a moment, the shield seemed to grow in size as it enveloped Shikamaru in its warmth.

"What are you doing, kid?"

"I don't really know... I just don't want anyone else to die." Her words hung in the air, but there was a firm sense of determination behind them. She was still thinking of Nemu, and Shikamaru couldn't help but wonder about her himself.

Why would she be able to self-destruct like that? Shikamaru knew that Kurotsuchi was a demented man, but to place something that can self-destruct inside of her was horrible. She was most likely dead now, either from the explosion or the crushing debris, and that seemed to weigh heavily on Orihime's mind.

Nemu was strong enough to eliminate Orihime, so why would the captain go to that extreme to eliminate her, no matter if his so-called allies got into the path of the destruction?

Shikamaru did not say anything for a long moment, letting the healing take its effect. His wounds began to fade, the power somehow preventing the scarring, and he could not even believe that she could be that powerful. It seemed like it was an all-purpose healer, not something focused like certain kinds of healing Kido. Given enough time and energy, Shikamaru imagined that it would heal any kind of wound and could apparently reverse death.

 _Reverse._ The word figuratively struck him so hard that he nearly had whiplash.

"Orihime, your powers are a mystery, but I think I might have figured something out."

She looked at him for a moment. "Really?"

"Yeah, I think so," Nara replied. "It rejects events. You literally will events not to happen. You don't heal things; you reverse the damage to things. Even death."

The expression on her face grew to shock, illuminated by the orange light of her healing ability. "You think so?"

Shikamaru nodded, realizing that even his exhaustion was starting to fade. When his clothing started to return, he shook his head in disbelief. "You even healed my uniform."

The girl blushed, proud of herself and her abilities, and pulled away the shield from his body when she knew he was in tip-top condition. All of her focus was returned to Sakura, and the Fourth Seat of Squad Four was much looking much better now, entire burns restored from her face and chest.

"Do you think I could heal the lieutenant, if... I found her?"

Shikamaru did not stand immediately, still trying to work out the next move in his head. He thought about her question, wondering if it could happen. "I honestly don't know."

While it would be a good thing overall if they found some trace of Nemu and healed her, Shikamaru couldn't give her the chance. She was a Ryoka, an enemy to the shinigami as a whole, and he had to capture her, before she finished healing Sakura so that Sakura wouldn't resist.

When he stood, he had made his decision. The pink-haired shinigami was almost completely healed, but it was sure that she wouldn't die now. He walked calmly over to the girl, and she was so entranced by her ministrations that she did not see his attack coming. He hit her once in the pressure point located behind the ear, sending a pulse of his reiatsu into her. She fell unconscious, her glowing shield breaking and reverting to the pins in her hair.

"I hope I get a chance to apologize for that one day, on better circumstances."

* * *

Toshiro stood over Momo's bedside, watching her sleeping form. She was hooked to an IV and seemed peaceful. Rangiku stood beside him.

"It was Lieutenant Uzumaki, wasn't it?" she asked. "Naruto brought her here for us to take care of her."

Toshiro nodded. "Yes."

"You still believe that it's Gin!?" she asked incredulously, realizing all over again that he still trusted Naruto. "How can you!? Uzumaki practically confessed everything that Aizen claimed in the letter! He had reason to do that too, considering that he was jealous of Captain Aizen's relationship with Momo in the first place! Maybe that monster inside him decided to take out Aizen for him!"

"Yes, that's possible," Toshiro agreed. "But Naruto is not  _that_ jealous of Aizen, not to the point of wanting him to die. Have I ever told you about Sojiro Kusaka?"

Rangiku looked confused. "No sir, you haven't..."

The captain sighed. "I am not going to explain to you all of the details, but just know that Kusaka died because he gained a power that he had no control over whether or not to have. He had no idea how he obtained it, or why, but he died for it. I'm not going to allow this to happen to Naruto too. I haven't ruled out the possibility that he did it, but my strongest inclination still leans toward Gin. Kira left his prison by opening the door from the inside, and Gin must have let him out."

Rangiku was angry at the accusation that her oldest friend could have done this. But she eventually took a calming breath and tried to focus her mind away from the situation.

"What use would the Kyuubi inside Naruto have for the power of the Sokyoku?" asked Rangiku. "Aizen's letter mentioned that this is all wrapped around the energy released during the execution. Why would Naruto, or anyone else if they are still on the table, want to destroy all of the Soul Society?"

"I don't know," Toshiro said, already considering what he needed to do to stop Gin, or even Naruto if it came to that, from getting its power. "I wish that I did."

Within seconds, a black and red butterfly entered the room and landed on Rangiku's fingertips. "The following is an urgent message for all squad captains and their lieutenants. A change has been made regarding the execution of Rukia Kuchiki. Be advised that this convicted prisoner's execution is now set for twenty-nine hours from now! This decision is final and irrevocable. There will be no further changes to the execution date. That is all."

Immediately, Toshiro turned and exited the room. Matsumoto followed. "Captain!"

"The execution and the release of Sokyoku's power... if Gin or Naruto really are the ones behind this, then there is no way that I can stand by and let this plan go forward. Let's go, Rangiku. You know what we have to do." Hitsugaya clenched his fist. "Stop the execution."

* * *

Yoruichi was amazed at the progress that Ichigo had made. The boy was still clashing with his zanpakutou spirit's materialized form, and the sheer advancement of his fighting ability was extraordinary. Each sword that he grabbed from the battlefield seemed to last a bit longer than the last, and he was getting hit far less often than before.

Ichigo's growth rate was the kind of ability that could not be taught. There was so little time left, however, and she was not sure that it could be done. Bankai was a necessity for his survival.

"C'mon, Ichigo! You can do better than that! You should know that you don't have the right sword! What does it feel like in your hands? Does it feel like it's yours?"

"Oh, shut up, Uzumaki!" Ichigo shouted back, snapping yet another sword before jumping backwards to grab another from the earth.

Yoruichi looked toward the blonde lieutenant, whisker marks running along his face. Uzumaki's own zanpakutou spirit stood near him, a redheaded woman draped in a white kimono with the kanji for "Uzumaki" scrawled across its surface. The kimono seemed to blend into the earth, looking as though roots were extending into the surface. Uzumaki was taking a small break from his own bankai training, sweat pouring down his face.

She could feel the disturbance before it actually arrived, and within seconds, something burst through the ceiling where the entrance was supposed to be located.

"I was wondering what you could be doing, holed up in this place," a voice shouted from above. "I take it that's the true form of your zanpakutou, Ichigo. And it figures that you'd have a woman as yours, Uzumaki."

"Stop with your dramatic entrance crap and get down here, Renji!" Naruto shouted back.

The dust settled and Renji Abarai appeared inside the training ground. Ichigo tensed, prepared for a fight. "So you're hiding out here, secretly training for Bankai, are you? Looks like fun to me!" Renji's Shikai was released, the segmented sword draped across his back. "Let me train along with you."

"Renji?" asked Ichigo, confused that he would want to help.

"You seem to have that, 'what are you doing here?' look. You probably gave the same look to Uzumaki, didn't you? Hell, I guess I can't blame you for wondering, but the fact is that I'm not here for any special reason. It's just that we're out of time now. I needed some place where I could concentrate in peace, just like you two."

Naruto walked over to join them, as Ichigo asked, "What do you mean we're out of time? What the hell are you talking about?"

Within moments, the bomb was dropped that Rukia's execution would take place at noon the next day. Ichigo's entire world seemed to shatter, and Naruto wanted to know how he avoided the knowledge.

"The hell butterflies don't know this place exists," explained Yoruichi. "Even if they sense your reiatsu, you probably avoided the message."

"Great," he muttered. "So we have hours left before we can save everyone, right?"

"Yes," Renji said. "And as much as I hate to admit it, but at my current level, I'm not strong enough to save Rukia. That's why I came here. To train."

Ichigo seemed to accept the knowledge. "Well, okay then. But try not to get in my way. I've already threatened to kill Naruto if he does, but that doesn't stop him from yelling unhelpful comments every few minutes."

"Hey, I'm just spreading advice! They're totally helpful! You're just too stubborn to listen to them! You'd rather have the truth of what you need to do beaten into you!"

"That's how I've grown in the past!"

Naruto frowned. "Um, that's pretty sick man. I can probably refer you to a good therapist."

The bickering seemed to continue for a few more moments before Yoruichi was finally tired of hearing it. "Quiet, everyone! If you're all going to use this limited space to train, then you need to leave each other alone to get to it. We don't have enough time for you to play around."

Renji lifted his sword, and smoke billowed off of it before materializing Zabimaru's baboon-snake hybrid for a spirit. "That sounds good to me. I'll be over there, as far away from you two as I can get."

Yoruichi looked toward Ichigo. "I'm afraid we need to refocus your training onto something else. There's no way that you'll have enough time now to do this. Maybe we can increase the capabilities of your Getsuga Tensho."

Naruto understood her train of thought. "I can probably try to teach you some Kido, but I don't think it matches your style very well."

"No," Ichigo muttered. "I can do all of that later. I've already committed to learning Bankai, and I'm going to learn it. I'm not going to give up, and neither are you! I know that I'll succeed."

"But what if tomorrow comes and you-"

"There are no what ifs. Failure is no longer an option," Ichigo said, crushing the end of the broken blade in his hand until it touched his fist. Blue-white spiritual energy radiated off of him in waves, his eyes glowing with intensity. "If they have changed the deadline to tomorrow, then the only option there is is to finish training today!"

Naruto had to admire the look of determination and the power rolling off of him. It easily matched a captain, and if he managed to obtain Bankai in time, he would have the capabilities to face them. Naruto had to do the same, and it was about time that he managed to do it. He had been working at it for far too long.

He remembered Tenten's words to him, long ago.  _"The blade is you. You are your blade. It is an extension of your will, and by its very nature is the manifestation of your soul. Even if yours acts like it's some portion of Kushina and Minato from our past life, that doesn't mean it isn't_ your _soul. You have to control your zanpakutou because it is the closest personification of who you are."_

She had always been the best at Zanjutsu and she had obtained Shikai first out of his Academy class. She understood the connection between shinigami and weapon far better than anyone else he had ever known, and she would probably be one of the lucky shinigami who eventually achieve Bankai, if she did not have it already. Tenten was the perfect person to go to for advice about weaponry and zanpakutou.

He turned to his own manifested zanpakutou and guided her over to the site where he had already begun training before. Naruto tried to let go of everything that had happened recently and focus only on his sword and the execution. He knew he had to stop it, and he knew that having Bankai would make it far easier to do.

He already knew the rules of the Bankai training, and within minutes, and entire forest began to appear around him. Kusaritane disappeared into the trees, melting into them in a similar way to an Akatsuki member he had once encountered.

 _"Find the original seed,"_  his blade repeated.  _"Find the original seed, and you'll know me."_

Naruto smirked. He had an idea, a new outlook on this training that he was hoping would work. He had failed so many times before to find his target, but it was time to get it right.


	23. The Original Seed

Kusaritane had committed to make him fight for it, Naruto realized, as he rushed through the trees that she had created, jumping from branch to branch in ways that truly brought memories back. She had complete control of the environment and twisted roots and branches to attack him. Leaves swirled around him, impairing his vision and occasionally cutting into him with odd precision.

Naruto cursed after a vine grabbed him, slamming him hard into the ground. He wished that he could figure out the task at hand. He had tried so many different ways to find what Kusaritane wanted him to find, and he wished that he had some kind of hint. He had already tried to find the first tree, the first leaf, and several other physical locations, but it was never right.

"It's mental, isn't it?" he asked finally, after trying to find the target in the thickest tree he could find. "It's not in this space you created." He had assumed this multiple times, but he had never had a strong impetus to figure it out now. He had to stop the execution.

Kusaritane knew his determination, and she finally smiled; she must have realized that it was the correct time.  _"Yes. The seed is not something physical. Much like the bark on the trees, our experiences cloud our truest self, beneath all of the layers that we create over time. You must find the original seed, Naruto, or my power will never be yours."_

"Geez, can't you be a little less cryptic? Is speaking in riddles in the job description of zanpakutou spirits?"

She did not comment, another barrage of attacks spreading toward him as she vanished into another tree, receding into the bark. The woods came alive once more, and Naruto had to use the dagger on his Shikai's arm bracer to cut through several incoming attacks.

He analyzed her clue to the best of his ability, running through it line by line. Having studied Kido extensively for years, he was good at breaking words down to study their meaning. Time... experiences... memories. "You're talking about memories, aren't you!?"

She did not say anything, instead smacking him in the abdomen with a large limb. The breath completely left his lungs, and he nearly fell from the tree he was standing on.

He adjusted himself and shook off the pain, realizing that if memories have clouded his truest self, what did he have to remember to unlock her power?

* * *

Sakura trudged endlessly through the cell, back and forth, enough times that she was worried she might create a rut in the wood beneath her feet.

She was worried for everyone. Chad, Orihime, Uryu. She even hoped that Nemu was somehow alive, but she doubted that. Her captain was despicable, and to go to that extreme in order to eliminate her and the Ryoka... That was too much. Everything about it screamed suspicion.

The Fourth Seat wished that she wasn't cooped up. She hated it, and that was one of the reasons why she developed the Interdimensional Relief Team, in order to support the World of the Living. She wanted to have the ability to make her own decisions, but maybe she didn't deserve that anymore.

A small part of Sakura wished that she had remained loyal to the Soul Society with every decision that she had made over the past several weeks. She wouldn't have gotten involved with the Ryoka's mission to save Rukia, and she wouldn't be imprisoned within her own Squad now.

The moment that there was a knock on the door, Sakura froze. She had been dreading the conversation, but it was obvious that it was going to happen. Captain Unohana entered the room, and Sakura gulped and started to sweat. She did not even have to release her spiritual pressure to cause it.

"Sakura," the captain began. She bowed lightly to her superior.

"Captain Unohana."

"I believe that we have a very unusual situation on our hands."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You aided the Ryoka in their mission to save Rukia Kuchiki, who is scheduled to be executed today. Is this correct?"

"Yes, ma'am." Sakura could feel the tension in the air spread after she announced the execution time. Was it going to start already?

"And did you believe that you were correct?"

"Ye- wait, no!" Sakura stumbled over her words. What did Unohana want her to say? After a second, she sighed. "I'm not sorry, Captain, for what happened. I'm glad that I made the decisions that I had to make, and I stand by them one hundred percent."

"Good."

Before Unohana could say more, something suddenly shifted in the air. A certain tension spread and Unohana stood up, walking toward the door. "We'll continue this conversation at a later date. Someone seems to need my medical attention, or I'm certain that he will die."

Sakura tried to read the spiritual pressure she sensed, but there was nothing familiar about it. As soon as Unohana walked out of the room, she sighed once more.

Why did this have to be so complicated?

* * *

"C'mon, Ichigo! Work faster! The clock is ticking!" Naruto shouted. He was taking a break, to try to separate himself from the training while he thought about the solution. Yoruichi had been watching the human intently, and Renji had already left, quite some time ago.

"Yeah, yeah, Uzumaki. I got it. You need to speed it up yourself, don't ya?"

Naruto grinned. "Of course I do. But I know I'll figure it out. I'm not sure if you will."

Ichigo growled and seemed to strike at Zangetsu harder, using some kind of forked falchion. Yoruichi cleared her throat.

"You've already figured out how to motivate him, haven't you?"

Naruto smiled, lowering his voice. "Yeah. Challenge him, make him think he'll fail, and he'll try harder. He's afraid of failing everyone he cares about."

Yoruichi nodded in agreement. "Do you know from experience?"

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that. Back when I was alive, I was the same way. I just didn't have anyone, not at first." He looked down. "I gained quite a few friends and mentors along the way, but I was an idiot. I'm actually surprised that they put up with me for as long as they did. Ichigo's lucky that he's got all these people supporting him from the get-go."

The woman looked at him solemnly. "We all go through times where we feel like we don't have anyone on our side. I felt this way for a long time myself. I had an entire squad of subordinates, and a large clan of related shinigami, but I don't think I truly started to feel like a person until Soifon and Urahara came along. There's something about fighting alongside someone. You resonate with that person, and it makes both of you stronger." She smiled. "I guess it's the same thing with our zanpakutou. How is your training going by the way?"

Naruto frowned. "I think I figured out what Kusaritane wants me to do, but I am not sure that I've figured out the blanks. It's connected to memories."

She pondered it a moment. "Memories? What do you mean?"

"She calls it 'the original seed.' That's what I have to find," Naruto explained. "She said something about peeling back the bark, the layers of experiences that make us who we are. So memories."

Yoruichi sat down on a boulder, cross-legged, like she was going to start going into Jinzen. "If the zanpakutou are a manifestation of the power we have in our souls, maybe you need to find the moment where that energy began to flourish."

Naruto's eyes widened. He immediately turned away from her, manifesting Kusaritane into the atmosphere. "Thank you so much, Yoruichi! You gave me an awesome idea!"

"No problem, Uzumaki!" She smiled, watching him disappear into the trees. Ichigo continued to fight before her, but she was suddenly more interested in Naruto's story.

* * *

The moment Chad awoke and realized that Orihime was there, he felt such relief. He was sitting in the Squad Seven barracks, inside their jailing quarters, along with Ganju. The Shiba and Orihime had not awoken yet, but Chad was just glad to see them.

Chad had been around when the word spread about the execution the day before, and had heard one of the Squad Seven members discussing it. Rukia Kuchiki was going to be executed, and it was too late. He believed in Ichigo, but if something happened to him, then it might be too late to save her.

He wished he had been able to defeat the captain that he had fought. He had not expected the release of Bankai; that information had not been shared with him. He had managed to defend himself against one attack with his seemingly impressive and probably impossible strength, but the Bankai had overwhelmed him.

Did all captains have Bankai? Or even all shinigami have Bankai? Did Ikkaku Madarame have one? Why would Yoruichi or even Urahara leave that secret from them?

"Ichigo... Sakura..." someone muttered. Chad watched Orihime begin to stir, as though from a dream. She suddenly shot up like a spring. "Where... what's going on?"

Chad frowned. "We're in the Squad Seven holding cell. Some lanky guy brought you here. What happened to you, Orihime?"

Chad listened as she launched into a lengthy explanation of everything that had happened to her since Kukaku's cannon. Orihime defeated the Fourth Seat of Squad Seven and brought him back to life. She outran the lieutenant of Squad Nine inside some library, with a secret passageway. The tunnel led to the inside of the SRDI, where she saved Uryu and fled. Then came back when she felt Sakura in danger, and ended up saving them from a suicide explosion of the lieutenant of Squad Twelve.

"Wait. You brought someone back to life?"

Orihime nodded, unsure of it herself. "I... think so. I'm honestly not sure whether or not to believe it."

"You should definitely believe it," muttered a voice. Orihime and Chad turned to see a large man covered almost entirely in bandages, as though he had been mummified. "Don't be scared. I'm not going to hurt any of you. I just wanted to thank you, Orihime Inoue, for showing kindness to your enemies. While not exactly the honorable thing for you to do, I'm certainly glad to be alive."

The human smiled lightly. "Thank you, Jirobo. I... I am glad you aren't dead too." The man left the room soon after, and Chad was impressed in some odd way with Orihime.

"That's amazing, Orihime. You've been through a lot." He explained what had happened with him, about the battles he had faced.

"What's Bankai?" she asked when he described Komamura's giant sword release, completely invested in his story.

"I don't know, but I actually thought I was on par with the captain before he released his Bankai," explained Chad. "Whatever it is, it's very bad news for Ichigo and Uryu, wherever they are."

Orihime thought for a long moment. "Sakura was with me, when I was taken. Where do you think she is now?"

He frowned. "I don't know. She might be with Squad Four."

Without warning, the wall suddenly gave way and awakened everyone in the room. Chad stood up, despite having a collar on that limited his powers, and stood in front of a startled Orihime. The man standing before them had a little girl on his shoulders, and he was carrying a long and beaten up sword. With him were three of his subordinates: Ikkaku, Yumichika, and a girl with hair shaped like panda ears.

"Kenny, look! That giant boy is trying to challenge you!" shouted the little girl.

"As much as I want a fight, I don't want a fight with them. I want another fight with their friend, Ichigo."

"Yeah! Ichi, ichi!"

Yumichika gestured to the outside. "We're breaking you out, in case our captain wasn't clear enough."

"Yeah. We'll take you to Ichigo," said the panda girl. "I'm not sure why I'm here, helping you, to be perfectly honest."

Ganju shouted, "And what reason do we have to trust you? Is this some kind of trick?"

"You're dense, aren't you, ugly?" asked Yumichika. Ganju was going to argue but Chad shot him a look, not sure if he should trust their word or not. "Why wouldn't we be telling the truth? We just crashed through the wall, and even if you didn't go with us, they aren't going to be able to patch that up to prevent you from escaping."

"Now, come on! Before I get bored of this!" Ikkaku said, exasperated.

Chad shared one look with Orihime before nodding, and the three invaders followed behind the five shinigami from Squad Eleven.

"Where is Squad Four?" asked Orihime, realizing that she had a prime opportunity.

Yachiru smiled, pointing. "It's that way, but why would you want to go there to those useless people, Prin-Prin? The execution is today!"

Orihime smiled at the English nickname; Yachiru had a knack for nicknames. She seemed equally callous. "I wanted to check on a friend, but we don't have time."

* * *

_He was just a kid. Where was the Pervy Sage?_

_He took a deep breath, hidden in a bush, trying to remember everything that his teachers ever taught him. Iruka wouldn't work; none of the Academy basics could possibly work against these two S-Class ninja. His go-to technique was pointless; the male Akatsuki member had destroyed multiple clones again and again with an interesting style of flawless taijutsu. Kakashi had only taught him how to work as a team and to walk on trees; none of that would work here, because he was alone in the valley outside of town, isolated from the only person travelling with him. Jiraiya... The Rasengan had proven useless against the two Akatsuki members, and he was still trying to learn how to use the Giant Rasengan._

_There was nothing in his arsenal that would work. He was alone, fighting against two enemies who were out for his blood. He had no idea who they were, one with orange hair and odd piercings along the bridge of his nose, and the other woman with purple hair who had been using paper projectiles to take out clones left and right._

_It was the male Akatsuki member's eyes that scared him, though. They were more distinct and more cold than any look a Sharingan can give. Faint purple eyes, like Hinata's Byakugan, with rippling lines, like a stone thrown on a smooth pond. Naruto had never touched him. Not one single time. The woman had burst into a paper clone the first time he managed a hit on her, but everything since then was over._

_"Come peacefully, jinchuuriki of Konoha," said the man. "Accept that your life will be over soon, and you can come with us without harm to you."_

_Naruto made a handsign, crossing four fingers together, and shadow clones of himself burst onto the scene, dozens surrounding the area. He used a quick_ _**Substitution** _ _to switch his position with another clone, to ensure he had a moment of safety._

_"Fat chance in hell!" He shouted, all the clones chanting the name at once._ _**"Mutli-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"** _

_Within seconds, every clone was obliterated either through paper shuriken from the woman or a quick jab from the man._

_Naruto had nothing. He laid on the ground, panting, hoping that Jiraiya would arrive any moment then. When nothing came, he had a sudden idea._

_Instantly, he felt himself go to instinct. Pure instinct. Red flames of chakra rage rolled off of him, transforming into an aura cloak with two tails. He felt his teeth sharpen and his nails lengthen, numb pain travelling up his body. He got onto all fours and instantly charged at the male enemy._

_**"Almighty Push!"** _

_The impressively-fast jinchuuriki was halted in mid-air for a split-second, enough time for him to register that the Akatsuki member had only had to lift a single hand to stop the level of Kyuubi he could control. In the next half-second, Naruto was sent sputtering across the ground, his arm snapping against the ground and shattering the bones. He was stopped by a tree that he was completely wrapped around, and it all happened so quickly that he was effectively conscious by a hair._

_Moments passed, and the two Akatsuki members stalked toward him, to make sure he was down. The moment that it happened, Naruto felt the third tail appear, and chakra cloaked over his entire body, covering him in its heat. The pain was excruciating, but it was enough of a change that he was able to stand with renewed purpose._

_The three-tailed creature blasted forward, three times as fast as before, and prepared to slash its claws into the Akatsuki male's face. He was prepared to get thrown again, but the man made no movement. Instead, the purple-haired woman stepped in front of him and threw out her arms._

_Every part of her body, as well as the man behind her, erupted into slips of paper, each as sharp as the last. Naruto could not comprehend how she had done it with the limited thought processes that he had, but within seconds, the paper projectiles covered his limbs and body. He could barely feel the pain, but her weapons seemed to burn away under the heat of his chakra._

_In the very next second, he realized that something was wrong. An explosion ripped off his arm and threw him into the air. Another paper bomb exploded, ripping away a chunk of his left leg and hurling him into the ground again, hard._

_The pain was too much, and his body succumbed to it. The two Akatsuki members appeared again in another area behind him, and it was clear to him that they had won, despite Naruto's efforts._

_"Take him. We'll keep him until we can complete the ritual."_

_"That could be months!" exclaimed the woman. "Orochimaru's ring, remember?"_

_"I'm well-aware of our sealing problem. I'm not going to let the Kyuubi slip through our fingers, while we have him in our custody. The Kyuubi will keep him alive. Go, Konan, before Jiraiya intervenes."_

* * *

Renji was sure that he was dead. He had went through all the trouble of learning Bankai, learning how to use Hihio Zabimaru, and Byakuya had defeated him nearly effortlessly. Renji thought he had died. Too much blood, too grievous a wound. He didn't know which, but he was sure of it.

So when he saw the sight of some kid healing him, tending to his wounds and bandaging him, he realized that it must have been a godsend.

The boy introduced himself, changing a bandage and setting his reiryoku to work healing his worse wounds. "What made you fight him, Lieutenant Abarai? Why fight your own captain? Is it because of Rukia?"

Renji nodded, realizing that he had no reason not to tell the truth. He wanted to save her. More than ever before. And Hanataro was going to give him another chance to do that, even if it ended with his life. He had to stop that bastard brother of hers. "Yes. It's her. It's always been about her, for me." He sighed solemnly. "Even from the Academy days, it was her. It will probably always be her."

"What do you mean?"

"She'll always be the person I care for most. Hanataro, if you can give me another shot, I can be of use to the others who are trying to save her. All I need to do is be able to get up and move around."

Hanataro nodded. "Of course. I know that Ichigo and his friends will be able to do it."

* * *

_Naruto had truly lost all sense of time. He had no idea where he was, he just knew that it was not somewhere normal. There was no sky, only black, and the sparse light came from the soft glow of the flat ground around him._

_Nothing ever happened. He had no idea how long it could have been. He tried using his chakra, but nothing worked. He tried to break the genjutsu he thought he was under, but he couldn't even be sure of that. Everything was hazy, everything was impossible. Even if he could form the chakra, his right forearm was gone and bandaged up, so there were no chances to use hand signs._

_Every so often, someone came into existence, as though appearing from a swirling portal, and injected him with some kind of material. The orange masked Akatsuki member was poisoning him, ensuring that he could not move from that spot inside that place. He somehow never went hungry or thirsty, and he had begun to lose all sense of literally anything._

_His mind tried to focus on his friends, on Sakura and Sasuke and Kakashi. On Iruka and Hinata and the other Rookies. On the Third Hokage, and Tsunade and Jiraiya. He wanted to know what his dad looked like, what his mom looked like, but he would never learn the truth of who they were. He had nothing. Nothing. Not even the Kyuubi could give him any interaction._

_Then something changed. He felt himself swirled away, and he was suddenly on the inside of a grand cavern. There were no distinctive features inside the room, other than the statue in the corner. He had no words to describe the massive behemoth, but it had far too many eyes._

_When the holograms suddenly appeared, Naruto recognized the rainbow silhouettes of the man and woman who had captured them. Every member of the Akatsuki was there, in the room, through some kind of ninjutsu, but the only physical person was the man who gave him poisonous treatments._

_"I can't believe that we have to do this again! Two in a row! Six days of my time when I could be toppling villages with my explosive art!"_

_"Oh, hush, Deidara," someone said, his deep voice almost impossible. Naruto tried to look to see what it looked like, but he could only see the strange tail sticking from his hunched over body._

_"We must begin at once," muttered the man wearing an orange mask over everything on his face but his right eye. He was the man who could teleport into whatever place Naruto had had to stay in._

_Within moments, the pain was too unbearable. He realized right then that he was dying, and he was too weak to do a damn thing about it._

* * *

Tenten cursed her own powerlessness the moment that the two captains and their lieutenants arrived to stop Kenpachi's path. Captain Tousen and Captain Komamura were true powerhouses, of a completely different caliber, and it pissed her off even more when she realized that someone like the Ryoka named Chad had managed to survive the Bankai of a captain, and even stop one attack with it. She wouldn't be able to do the same, and it upset her so much.

She had been working on her own Bankai for a long time, for literally years. She was starting to realize that not every shinigami was fit for Bankai. Maybe she would never reach the form herself, despite how strongly she felt about her zanpakutou.

It wouldn't have the speed or the power to take on a captain like her own. And she didn't know enough about the abilities of Tousen and Komamura, but it didn't matter. Captains were simply above her pay-grade, and despite her battle-heavy attitude, she wanted to immediately run the moment that they arrived to stop her.

Captain Zaraki stepped forward, putting himself in between them and his group. He declared his challenge, much to the surprise of everyone. Tenten knew he was strong enough to take them all on, but it surprised her either way. After a few moments, Yachiru was leading the rest of them away. The Ryoka were at a loss for words, and Chad seemed as though he wanted to fight again.

Several minutes of running passed, before Ikkaku and Yumichika began to fall back.

"What are you two bozos doing?" asked Tenten. "The execution is up ahead!"

"I'm not going to abandon the captain in his time of need," The Fifth Seat stated.

"We'll take some of the heat off of him. I've been wanting to fight Iba again!" exclaimed Ikkaku. "You stay here. Protect the Ryoka. And that's an order!"

She huffed. "Seriously? You're going to order me to protect the enemy?"

"He's right, Tententen. You can help me keep the others safe! They deserve it!" Yachiru shouted. Orihime, Ganju, and Chad did not know how to comment, but if they did, Tenten was sure that she would say to stuff it. She didn't know how to process the sudden burst of reiatsu from the lieutenant, if she should take it playfully or not, but it got the point across. It was enough to dwarf her own, and it always surprised her that she was that strong for someone who seemed so young. She seemed to be the strongest lieutenant on the basis of spiritual power alone, without bias.

"Fine. We all have our roles to play. Let's keep going, I'll take point." She was not happy about it, but Ikkaku and Yumichika disappeared to fight the lieutenants. Yachiru gladly let her direct them, while casually pointing out the wrong direction every few yards. Tenten finally said for her to shut up, and Yachiru, of course, refused.

* * *

_When he woke up, he was surprisingly free to move around. He was dressed fully in white robes, similar to the traditional wear of the Hyuuga. Why had he changed clothes? Did the Akatsuki want to dress him up somehow? It surprised him that he wasn't dead._

_But then he saw the chain. The chain binding him to an identical body to his own. But this one wasn't a clone. This one was the empty husk of a boy who had lost the potential to change the shinobi world for good. The Naruto in front of him was dead, and he had some stupid chain connecting him to his fate._

_The room was empty, except for the masked man standing over him. Naruto rushed over to him, yelling as the chain scraped against the floor, and attempted punch the man directly in the face, mask be damned. Nothing happened, and Naruto intangibly flew through the Akatsuki member like he was made of air._

_He screamed, but no one came for him. No one could hear him, and he wasn't sure if they ever would again._

_Is this what awaited everyone who died? To be chained to their bodies, unable to leave and having to watch it decompose?_

_"It's done," the masked man said. Naruto looked to the right, realizing that there now a few open eyes on the giant statue. The Kyuubi had been extracted, and despite Naruto's good heritage as an Uzumaki, the process had killed even his impressive life force._

_He was communicating with someone, probably through an ear piece or something. "You're right. Two of Konoha's biggest weapons were eliminated in the last few months: Jiraiya and the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. They won't be able to resist me when I enact my plan."_

_Naruto began to freak out, his throat clamming up, and his entire fake body went cold. He wanted to pull on his chakra, but it didn't work. He had no abilities and no actual way to use them. He wanted to kill the man who had killed him. He wanted to kill the man who had had a part in killing Jiraiya. He wanted revenge._

_Hours passed, and Naruto still could not interact with anything but the chain connected to his chest. It no longer connected to his body; the chain had snapped somehow and was now dangling from him. He did not know what he was going to do. He wondered if he could do anything at all._

_Someone entered the room, and his body had still not been buried anywhere. Was he going to be left to rot? He had not tried to leave the cavern, but he could tell that the Akatsuki had left and had taken the statue with them, using some kind of jutsu._

_He could feel the man's presence, but something suddenly clouded his senses. He could not see anything but a blur, and no defining details. A glint of steel hit his eyes. Something tapped his head, and it was done. Blue light enveloped him, and Naruto felt more at peace than he ever had._

* * *

Momo ran along the rooftops, jumping from building to building. She knew where Toshiro would have gone, and she had been slowly following his presence while masking her own.

She had to get back out there. She was on a mission to destroy the Kyuubi, and she had the sinking suspicion that Toshiro would know where Naruto was. She knew him better than anyone, and he was probably hiding somewhere until the time was right.

The letter mentioned that the Kyuubi wanted to get the energy released in the execution to break free from Naruto's body. But that would kill him, and she didn't want that to happen. She wanted to capture Naruto, hold him somewhere until after the execution was over. It was the only way to ensure that they he was protected, and they could figure out the specifics behind how to get it out of him later.

Momo wiped away the hint of tears running along her eyes. She was tired of crying. She needed to be productive, to do something for the good of her captain. Naruto was not in his right mind; no matter how much he said that he was okay, that the Kyuubi did not work that way, she refused to accept it. All she had was the information that was given to her, and Aizen had never lied to her.

She hated the idea of choosing him over Naruto; all of those fights and arguments about his presence in her life continued to run through her mind again and again. She had to remind herself that trusting Aizen was the best option for Naruto's protection.

She blasted forward, in the direction of Central 46. Toshiro and Rangiku were headed there, probably to appeal to the judges directly for Rukia's release. They were far ahead of her, but she had to get there as soon as possible. Time was wasting, and the execution was going to begin.

* * *

Rukia eyed the crowd from where she stood, at the base of the apparatus built to hold the convicted criminals for the great blade to kill them with its power.

Her captain was there. Captain Kyoraku and Nanao were there. Captain Fon and her lieutenant stood off, watching what had seemingly become a spectacle. Captain Unohana and Lieutenant Kotetsu were there, standing next to the captain and lieutenant of Squad Eight. Head Captain Yamamoto stood before her, his right hand man ever present behind him.

"Now, the time has arrived. Let us begin the execution," Yamamoto declared, hands on his cane.

She turned away from him to see her brother appear, and she could not hide the shock on her face. "My brother..." He turned away at her words and joined the line of officers present.

"Rukia Kuchiki! It is time. Any last words before your execution?" asked the Head Captain. She was honestly surprised that she had even been given the honor of giving last words.

She finally opened her eyes after solemn thought. "Yes. Just one." She explained it quickly, almost too silent for anyone to hear.

Spiritual pressure began to gather around the base of the Sokyoku's blade. "Agreed. Your last request will be honored. After your execution, I shall allow the Ryoka to return home unharmed."

The moment that he said it, she immediately felt the relief wash over her. "Oh, thank you so much, Head Captain!"

Moments later, the Kido Corps began to line up at the base of the great blade, blue spiritual energy cackling around them like a huge fire.

"Release the Sokyoku's seal!" shouted the Head Captain. Energy rose immediately, as though it had been supercharged. It stabilized, four columns of energy reaching into the sky in ways that reminded her of one of her Shikai abilities.

The ropes suddenly snapped and unwound, flying off into the distance. The spiritual pressure was staggering, aimed directly at her, and it was only through her sheer pride that she managed to stay standing.

She remembered Gin as she faced the ceremonial sword, and how he had trampled all rationale she had built over dying. Had he not been there and dangled the option in front of her face, she would have been content to die. Now she was struggling to come to terms with it, and she hated him with every fiber of her being.

But thanks to Yamamoto's oath, she knew that they would be fine. No one else would die because of her. She had made peace once more.

Byakuya refusing to look her in the eye was oddly comforting. Was that part of the reason as well? He was so serene, so poised and noble, it almost made her happy that her death would have a minimal effect on his ability to be at peace. She would break down if he broke down. She was glad for his strength.

Instantly, the cords holding her hands faded away. Her arms locked in place, outstretched horizontally. She began to rise, guided by the levitating mechanisms holding her before the blade's fury. She rose to the top of the stand, and everyone was too small beneath her.

Fire exploded from the base of the Sokyoku, an awesome amount of power swirling around. The heat was incredible and everything too impossible to even comprehend. She could believe that this was the power of one million zanpakutou, now that she has seen it in action.

The spear lifted from the ground, slowly changing shape as the fires grew around it. It began to resemble a phoenix, rising from the ashes, and it was the most amazing sight she had ever seen. It was insanely beautiful.

"The spearhead of the Sokyoku has taken on its true form in order to render the ultimate punishment! When the prisoner's body has been pierced, their sentence will have been carried out!" Yamamoto shouted.

_I am not afraid, and I have lived a good life. I was blessed by meeting Renji and all the others, my brother Byakuya's adoption, and the guidance of Kaien. And finally, by Ichigo's attempt to rescue me. This is not suffering. This is not pain. I have no regrets. My heart leaves nothing behind. Thank you._

Tears rolled down her face, the heat bearing on her. She thought of Ichigo, and her heart crumbled.

"Farewell."

She braced herself, and the fire and light intensified as the spearhead flew toward her. Several short moments passed, and she realized that dying had not been painful at all. She opened her closed eyes and immediately gasped.

Standing on the air in front of Rukia was Ichigo, some form of cloak over his normal shihakusho. He had one hand on the blade attached to his back, and he was turned facing her. Inexplicably, he was effortlessly blocking the spearhead as though it were nothing to him.

"Hey." He said nonchalantly.

"Ichigo!" She paused to collect her thoughts. "Idiot! I said don't come back!"

He looked flabbergasted. "Wha-?"

"What's it going to take for you to finally realize?! You can't defeat my brother! He'll kill you for sure this time! I'm not asking you or anyone to rescue me! I'm resigned to my fate!" He looked glum, astounded that this would be her reaction. "Go away!"

There was a momentary pause before the bird-like spear suddenly screamed aloud and reared back for another go. Ichigo turned and braced himself for another attempt at blocking it. "Backing out to prepare for a second attack, huh? Go ahead! Bring it on!"

"You'll never be able to stop it a second time!" Rukia shouted. "Enough already, Ichigo! You've got to quit! Ichigo, please! You'll be torn to pieces!" The human turned shinigami held out Zangetsu and rushed forward, preparing to meet it. "Ichigo!"

Without warning, a sealing rope suddenly wrapped around the spearhead's beak, stopping it in place. Ichigo recovered. "What the hell?"

From Rukia's vantage point, she could not see what exactly was happening, but she could feel the trace spiritual pressures. Ukitake had arrived with Sentaro and Kiyone, and they had used some kind of device to try to reseal the Sokyoku. In a surprising move, Kyoraku joined in and helped hold the rope in place, staking something into the ground and then drawing one of his blades, raking it across the shield that Ukitake was holding.

The ropes attached to it began to charge with power, lighting up with an orange glow. It hit the phoenix and it suddenly exploded, power spreading over everywhere in small shards before dissipating.

The heat faded from the sky, and Ichigo suddenly smirked. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I'll use the diversion!" He flipped in mid-air and landed on the stand behind Rukia's head.

"Ichigo, what are you doing?"

He swung Zangetsu around and around, calling on the power within him. "Isn't it obvious? This stand is about to tumble down!"

"That's crazy!" Rukia shouted, finally allowing it to register in her mind. "You can't! You'll only end up killing us both! The Sokyoku is too strong!"

"Shut up," he said, snapping his sword back into his hand. "Don't worry about it."

She watched helplessly as he slammed Zangetsu into the stand, and the blue power of his zanpakutou filled it. In seconds, it exploded, spreading debris and dust everywhere.

"'I don't want you to rescue me,' you said. 'Go home,' you said. You know, sometimes you talk too much, Rukia." The dust dissipated around her face, and she realized she was safely under his arms, being held like a sack of potatoes. "Good thing I don't listen to you. Now this is the second time that I've had to tell you this. I've come here to rescue you. Got it?"

* * *

Naruto was going to find Toshiro when he finally felt the energy of the execution. He had to hope that Renji and Ichigo could stop it, as he had other business to attend to. He wanted to track down the real killer of Aizen, to prove his honor to Momo and win her back.

He was pissed at her for how she had treated him. But he had treated her wrongly as well, even if keeping the truth of the Kyuubi from everyone was the best thing he could have done at the time. He should have trusted her with that secret, and she should have known from the beginning that he had tried to help Rukia. All of that blew up in his face, and she had every right to believe someone else. He just wished that someone else had been her captain, because Aizen had totally gotten under his skin, even if it was unintentional when he was alive.

He needed her to know the truth now, that Gin had killed Aizen. If Rukia was safe, then Gin did not get the energy from the Sokyoku. He believed that Ichigo and Renji had succeeded; he had to.

He raced through the area, avoiding the radar that showed Captain Zaraki fighting two other captains that he couldn't place. He moved around them, heading for the Central 46 grounds. That was where Toshiro had told him to meet, after dropping Momo off at Squad Ten's barracks. He had hoped to question why the official appeal to stop the execution was rejected.

Naruto would have rather went after Gin again himself, but that had not ended well the first time. There had to be something odd going on there anyway. Why had the date changed so many times, unless someone was trying to change the date to line up better with what was going on? Had the Ryoka turned into one big distraction? Had Ichimaru _planned_  for the Ryoka to come to the Soul Society for that exact purpose? It had to be a coincidence. It was too perfect to have been planned.

He was not far from the Central 46 headquarters when he suddenly felt some spiritual pressure on his radar. Something big was happening, and he was suddenly compelled to flee. He had to help protect them both. He was torn between helping Toshiro and helping them, but it was clear what would be best.

Tapping into the Kyuubi to increase his speed, he fell into Shunpo and headed toward Sokyoku Hill.


	24. Tail of Conspiracy

The instant that they passed through the gateway into the innards of the Central 46 chambers, Toshiro felt a sense of foreboding. He should not be there. Rangiku should not be there. No one is allowed inside but the judges of the Central 46 unless they are to be judged, and Toshiro could not help but feel anxious. The first and last time he was in that room, his friend lost his life.

"Keep an eye out," Toshiro muttered. "We need to get to those judges as quickly as possible. Something is going on here."

Rangiku nodded, the two of them running toward the main chamber. The instant that they entered, the sight burned itself into Toshiro's memory.

Every man and woman inside that room was dead, brutally murdered in what looked like an animal attack. Bodies were everywhere, the blood splattered over every surface. Burn marks scattered the room, and a small fire was still burning in the corner. Toshiro knew that to be odd; fires were not able to effect the walls of sekkisekki surrounding each room, especially the main chamber.

Rangiku gasped. "Izuru!" The two of them ran to his side, and Izuru looked as though he was barely holding onto life. She began frantically covering his throat, where a claw appeared to have ripped open his neck. "You're going to be all right! Stay with me!" She began to apply any bit of healing Kido she knew, just enough to supplement his reiryoku so he could heal himself. "C'mon, start chanting. Help me, join with me!"

"Izuru, what happened?" Toshiro demanded, hand on his sword. "What's going on?"

Kira started sputtering out Kido, his energy blending with Rangiku's in order to start healing himself with her own power. He raised a bloody finger, pointing. "Mo-..."

Toshiro turned quickly and gasped. Two dark red objects, waving around like tendrils and covered in fiery energy, retreated farther into the hallway, and the captain moved without consequence. He had no time to read into Kira's words, instantly drawing his zanpakutou. "Matsumoto, stay there and keep Kira alive. Don't let anyone leave! It's the Kyuubi!"

* * *

Momo had followed Toshiro there, and it was only a matter of time before she could find him and find out where Naruto was. She needed to destroy the beast inside of him; it was a threat to everyone involved, and if something was not done then, it could be too late for someone else.

Something told her to follow Toshiro and Rangiku into the building through the side entrance. She passed into the forbidden territory, and immediately tried to start searching for spiritual senses the moment she entered the sekkisekki-lined building.

She could feel several pressures inside, as well as some unknown pressure that did not feel like anything she had ever felt before. It was like pure, unadulterated killing intent, and it caused her to clam up when she felt it. Something was wrong and she hurried faster.

The stench of death and blood hit her full in the face, and she nearly coughed. She did not have enough time to see where it was coming from, but it was putrid enough that she knew some kind of great tragedy had occurred there.

The instant that she saw the four-legged creature, shining with dark red intensity, she screamed as it headed right for her. Its twin tails whipped around in the air, and she knew immediately who this was. Naruto was hidden beneath that, and she had no idea what to do.

On instinct, she erected a barrier, a green wall of light standing between her and the monster that her boyfriend had become. She weaved another layer of a different type of barrier, one to nullify reiryoku from passing, but the creature sliced right through it as though it had been made of cardboard. Even the explosive nature of the shield did not cause it to flinch. The container of the Kyuubi headed right for her.

She summoned Tobiume, instantly backing up with a flash of speed. She gasped when she hit the wall hard behind her, before charging an explosive blast of pink energy and sending it directly into the face of the beast. It rocketed back, smoke billowing off of its body and spreading it around the entire room. She coughed and tried to blow it out of her face, and she wished that she didn't have to pull her punches. Some part of her wanted the Kyuubi dead, no matter what it took, for all the trouble it had caused for the most important person in her life.

She bounced off of the wall and jumped up, taking advantage of the high ceilings to try to jump behind it and stab. With one swing of its energy tail, she slammed against the wall and probably broke a rib, with an inaudible gasp of pain.

Momo recovered, holding her sword in front of her and hoping that it would take easy with her. "Naruto, don't do this! I can save you! Give up, and we'll try to protect you while we get rid of that thing!"

The creature growled in protest, flaring up its energy, and Momo had to shield her eyes. Tobiume was swatted away with a quick claw, and the creature continued to stalk closer to her, standing over her now and preparing to place her body between its teeth. She flicked her wrist, gesturing toward its open maw, and fired an incantation-less Byakurai. The monster screeched, its entire body leaping back away from her and her electrical attack. Momo saw the burn mark behind the creature's head, and she knew it had pierced completely through the back of her throat. She frowned, realizing that she probably taken it too far.

To her utter amazement, the creature snapped its head to left and then to the right, popping its neck and causing the healing factor to kick in. Momo couldn't do anything. Nothing would work against it, no matter how much she tried.

Its tails raised into the air and then whipped down at her, ready to pierce her to the wall behind her. She pleaded with it one last time, staring deep into its eyes and trying to see some form of Naruto's deep blue inside.

 **"Danku!"**  the familiar voice shouted, and Momo's heart began to race even more than before. The creature slammed against the powerful barrier, and it did not even crack. It adjusted its assault, trying from another angle, but a white-haired captain with a foxy grin attacked the fox itself, kicking it away. Momo could feel the other presence beside her, alongside Gin's, but it was too much to assume. There was no way.

She craned her head to the voice's location, and her entire world shattered and restarted, all at the same time. The brunette captain and Ichimaru had appeared, saving her from the creature, and Momo could not believe her eyes.

"Captain... Aizen?"

* * *

Rangiku could hardly understand anything that Kira was trying to say, acting as though it would be his last goodbyes. She finally started to toughen up. "Stop acting like it's your last day, Kira. You're going to pull through this! Keep up your medical Kido, it's working very well!"

To be honest, she wasn't extremely sure if it was working or not. She liked to think so, but she knew next to nothing about healing Kido. All she knew were the bare minimum basics, enough to keep someone's energy up while they slowly die. She was hoping that Kira could take advantage of that and keep himself alive with his own Kido.

She feared for Toshiro. Going up against that monster, that same monster that killed Aizen? That was terrifying. Perhaps Toshiro had the upper hand, maybe he didn't. But the monster was strong enough to defeat a much stronger captain than Toshiro. She honestly had to hold out hope that Toshiro would be all right.

Something shifted in her mind's eye, and she looked up in shock. The monster was heading down the hallway and into the room she was in. "Damn it! Kira, stay quiet!" she whispered, hoping that she could keep away from it.

The monster did not come for them, however. It took one look at them, and then headed right toward the entrance, bypassing them completely. Rangiku wished that she could have done more.

"You... had to let it go," Izuru muttered. "It's... stronger than you. Stronger than Hitsugaya. You should be glad that it's leaving."

Rangiku nodded. "I am, but I wish I could have stopped it. I can't believe Naruto would kill all those people."

Izuru seemed to follow her train of thought. "What would Naruto gain from killing the Central 46? Does this explain why the date was changing so often? Had he killed them and instituted fake orders?"

Rangiku wished that she had answers.

* * *

Naruto took a long, deep breath, trying to calm himself down. The fire ahead of him was so strong, so powerful, that going toward it was an idiotic decision. He knew it was stupid; he could already sense who was going to be fighting, and Naruto knew he had to help his captain fight. The two captains, two of Yamamoto's oldest students, were going to fight against their former sensei, and the Head Captain was undoubtedly the most powerful shinigami the world had ever known. Naruto knew he could be some help against Yamamoto, if only for an extra sword. Three against one was better than two against one.

The instant that he landed, the spiritual pressure rose against him, fires flickering in his direction but coming up short. He could feel its weight on his chest, making it more and more difficult to breathe with every breath.

"Naruto!" Ukitake exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like, Captain?" he asked, smiling through the pressure in front of him. He found Yamamoto's direct glare, and the killing intent was potent, potent enough to make Naruto want to collapse.

"You're a fool," Ukitake said. "Get back. Get out of here." As though on cue, Ukitake's resolve shook and he coughed hard.

Naruto gestured toward him. "See, that's why I want to help. Captain Kyoraku, you got a problem with it?"

The captain looked him over. "Of course I have a problem with it. You're a lieutenant. He's going to outclass you by a huge amount." Kyoraku looked back on the older captain. "But if you can help, at least in the smallest way, keep Ukitake alive, then go for it. Just don't come crying to me when you end up like Little Nanao."

Ukitake gave one last look at him before nodding subtly. "Let us fight him. You stay behind us until we give the signal."

The heat was inescapable, the entire battlefield surrounded by powerful flames from Yamamoto's Ryujin Jakka. Smoke filtered through the air, and if this had not been an industrial district, there would have been lives lost from its display.

Ukitake placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, trying to divert away spiritual pressure. Naruto shook his head. "I've got this. I can fend it off myself." The white-haired captain frowned but backed off.

"Be careful. Don't let his flames touch you! Not once!"

The two captains turned to face their teacher. The bearded man scoffed. "My how the times have fallen, and how the pride of the young has risen! Do you sincerely think you can oppose me, Lieutenant Uzumaki?"

Naruto shook his head. "Probably not alone, no. But with the right kind of help, I can pose a threat to you. Don't underestimate me!"

Yamamoto laughed. "I believe I am properly estimating you, boy. You truly think you can oppose me with a mere shikai?"

Naruto drew his wakizashi, pointing it toward the man in front of him.  _ **"Take root and sprout, Kusaritane!"**_ In an orange flash of light, his sword transformed into a gauntlet launcher, with the dagger attached to the front. He considered taking it one step further, but it wasn't the right time yet. He wanted to prove himself alongside the two captains, and he knew that Kyoraku and Ukitake would not go into bankai just yet.

Yamamoto brandished his sword through the air, new flames flickering to life around him. "What are you two waiting for? Go on, and release your swords!" The fire surrounded every inch of the Head Captain, creating a layer of heat and light all around him. "You haven't much time. Surely you do not wish to be burned without even challenging me! Follow this lieutenant's example and release your zanpakutou!"

Kyoraku shook his head. "I guess it can't be helped, Juushiro. Shall we? If we don't, this young one will be the only fool here. Can't let him show us up."

Ukitake had a moment of silence, before closing his eyes. "Yes." He raised his sword in the next moment.  _ **"All waves rise now and become my shield! Lightning! Strike now and become my blade!"**_ His blade duplicated and transformed, becoming twin pronged blades connected by a cord at the hilt. The cord was adorned with odd sigils, and Naruto was always glad to see his captain's shikai. He knew how powerful it was, and how much it outclassed his own.  _ **"Sougyo no Kotowari!"**_

Kyoraku smirked.  _ **"Flower wind rage, and flower god roar!"**_  He raised his second sword and made a cross formation.  _ **"Heavenly wind rage, and heavenly demon sneer! Katen Kyoukotsu!"**_ The twin blades transformed into two curved swords with silver edges, and red tassels attached to the hilts of both. The right handed blade was slightly shorter than the other.

Naruto had never seen Shunsui's zanpakutou's release before, so he had no clue how to judge its abilities. He knew a little about Ukitake, but nothing about Kyoraku. He wished that he did, because he could strategize quite a bit better.

"Are the three of you ready to face me?" asked Yamamoto, his scarred body glowing in the light of the raging inferno around them. Naruto could feel its power, and he had to work hard not to become overwhelmed.

"Yes."

"Any time."

"You should be asking yourself if you're ready to face  _me!_ "

The man frowned, energy rising around him. "Your insolence will get you nowhere! Prepare to die!"

In the next instant, the three captains started to move, and Naruto followed closely behind the two working alongside him. The massive collision of power was great as their blades locked, and Naruto had to brace himself in order to avoid being blasted back. When the smoke cleared, both Ukitake and Kyoraku had locked one of their blades together with Yamamoto's, and Naruto realized he had a small opening.

He ran forward and launched the dagger, twisting it through the air in order to curve around Yamamoto's left and attack him from the side. He snapped the attack taut to suddenly change directions when Yamamoto saw it coming, pointing it directly at the shoulder of the Head Captain.

He flexed a muscle, and with a pulse of power, it deflected off of his skin. Naruto watched as he dueled with the two captains, avoiding blows from the dual-bladed zanpakutou and attacked with his own fire. Suddenly, Kyoraku broke away and Ukitake held fast. Kyoraku yelled, "Kageoni!" before stepping onto Yamamoto's shadow.

The Head Captain frowned and threw out a leg, kicking the shadow sword away from him. "Your games are far too predictable, Shunsui! I know all of your tricks!"

"Figures it was worth a shot," Kyoraku shouted back, locking into direct combat once more.

The flames were burning brighter and brighter, intensifying with each swing of Ryujin Jakka. Naruto realized what was happening, seeing the flames solidifying into a shape to Ukitake's right. **"Bakudo Number Eighty-one: Danku!"** The barrier surrounded the back of Ukitake, protecting him from being cooked alive by the fire blast.

He had perfect control of the flames he created, and he did not even have to use his sword to control them. Naruto cursed, realizing that the environment was being used against them. He looked around at the flames, wondering if it would work. Maybe if they were linked to the man's consciousness, he could surprise Yamamoto and get an opening in.

He jumped into the air, ditching that plan of action.  **"Rasentane!"** The spinning dagger gathered orange energy and exploded in the shape of a sprouting seed, slamming on the ground in between the three fighters. The two younger captains managed to jump away in time, but Yamamoto did not bother. The explosion cleared away, and he was still standing, not visually affected at all.

Naruto landed in front of him, snapping the dagger back into place and swiping at him with the dagger connected to his wrist. Ukitake said something behind him, but he couldn't hear it due to the cracking of the flames around the man's sword.

"I am truly astounded by the sheer audacity of your actions," explained Yamamoto, pushing off with a powerful horizontal slash, coupled by a powerful kick to the gut that sent him flying. "Stay back. You cannot win with this level of power alone."

The fire circle continued to mold its shape, and it seemed that Kyoraku and Ukitake were more aware of it now. Another jet of fire headed directly toward Ukitake, but the man raised his right handed sword and absorbed all the heat and power directed at him, before twisting and sending it back at its wielder with double the power. The fire, if it continued, would have enough heat to incinerate the entire area.

Yamamoto flashed out of the way, and directly into the path of Shunsui's diving counterattack.  **"Bushougoma!"** The wind hit the Head Captain, who barely managed to raise his arms in time to brace himself from the small tornado cutting into his body. Yamamoto flew several yards, back near the ring of fire he had created.

Naruto watched the fight for another minute before realizing that he was out of his league. He could perhaps serve as a distraction at best, with the way that he was now. A couple of Kido and abilities from his zanpakutou would not be enough.

Naruto walked calmly toward the center of the battlefield, keeping his eyes on the dueling captains with all cost. "Head Captain Yamamoto, how about this level of power?" Instantly, his reiatsu easily tripled with intensity, enough to some of the flames around him to dissipate from the combating force.  _ **"Bankai!"**_

Naruto felt the launcher extend over his upper body, creating black and orange body armor with orange orbs of energy scattered around. The shoulder guards, the arm bracers, the chest plate and the hip guards... All of it was there, and throughout all of it, were exactly nine orbs of swirling energy. The orb in the center of his chest was the largest, with two smaller ones on either side of it, leading up to the shoulder guards. The dagger had disappeared, and in that moment of shock, he imagined that the three captains wanted to know where his weapon went.  _ **"Kusarimori Tenkai!"**_

"You achieved bankai?" asked Ukitake, incredibly astounded.

Naruto grinned, crossing his arms. "Yes, sir."

"Congratulations!" Kyoraku shouted amicably, before blocking yet another strike with the two of his swords. "Are you going to stand there, or are you going to help us?"

* * *

Momo could hardly believe what was happening. "How is this possible, Captain Aizen? Are you really alive?" It was as though everything had been ripped out from under her. Everything that she understood to be true wasn't anymore, and it was difficult to stop her head from spinning.

He looked down at her with a warm smile. "Yes. I'm alive, my dear Momo. What you see before you is real."

"That's amazing!" She hugged him lightly before backing off, trying to keep it more professional. She couldn't help the tears. "What happened though? Why are you here?"

"He could ask you the same question," Gin stated snidely, but Aizen gave him a look that caused him to shut up immediately.

"I'm afraid that is a difficult story to tell," he began. "I'm sorry that I couldn't involve you in all of this, but I did not want you to be harmed because of my actions.

"What I said in the letter, about the Kyuubi needing the energy from the Sokyoku to be released, that isn't the whole story. I learned of a plan for Naruto Uzumaki to enter this forbidden space and to kill the judges of Central 46, in order to issue commands in their stead," explained Aizen. "Naruto used this plan to change the date of the execution so that it would line up with his plans. I faked my death, in order to try to stop him by hiding here in wait unimpeded, but I was too late."

"No! There's no way," she explained. "Naruto would never do something like this!"

"Of course he wouldn't," Aizen replied. "But Naruto isn't the problem here. The Kyuubi coerces him, uses his power to influence Naruto to impossible feats, to accomplish things that the old Naruto would never think to do. The Kyuubi has been influencing its host to use the power of the Sokyoku to unleash itself on the city and destroy the Soul Society."

She did not want to believe it. To read it on paper, with her captain's immaculate handwriting was one thing. But to actually hear someone's words who believed that to be true?

"Tell me, Momo," explained Aizen. "Has he been acting strange to you? Has he been lying significantly more lately? Has he seemed preoccupied or distracted, if not irritable?"

His words rang true. All of them. Naruto had been keeping things from her, things that she should have known. Things that Naruto would have told her, before the Blank Invasion happened.

"Exactly," Aizen said upon seeing the look on her face. He walked toward her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Naruto Uzumaki has changed, Momo, from the man you love. If we do not contain the beast, his power will continue to grow until it consumes him entirely."

She nodded slowly, in agreement. Something had to be done, but she couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

Gin finally cleared his throat. "You're not gonna break the bad news to her?"

"Bad news? What could be worse than this?" she asked.

Aizen frowned. "Based on everything we know, the only way to defeat the Kyuubi is to kill Naruto. If he dies, the beast will no longer have a vessel to take shape in the spiritual world. It is a beast of physical power, and without a large amount of energy like the Sokyoku to supplement that effect, the physical cannot exist inside the spiritual without being broken apart, bit by bit."

She couldn't contain herself. Everything about this was adding up to be absolutely horrible. Tears streaked down her cheeks. "There has to be another way! Tell me there's another way!"

Her captain looked down at her, wrapping her in another comforting hug. "I'm afraid that there isn't Momo."

A shooting pain hit her side, and she couldn't understand it. Blood started to pour from her mouth, and streaking down her chin as her entire body filled with terror. The face before her was kind and sweet, and there was a twinge of sadistic apathy that she had never noticed before. The sword had entered her side, slipped between ribs, and cut a diagonal very near her left lung. She would bleed to death if she did not receive treatment.

Momo felt herself hit the floor, but she tried not to lose consciousness. She tried to stay alert, very aware of the warm blood pooling around her. She was going to die here, somehow from the blade of one of the two people she trusted more than any other in the whole world. Momo felt a single tear rush down her cheek, freezing into a droplet of ice as it hit the ground.

* * *

Naruto threw a hand on the ground, the orb in the center of his chest lighting up.  **"Moritane!"**  Orange energy spread from his fist in a spiral formation, and in the next moment, trees began to form along that line, spreading outward from his fist until the entire ring of fire was filled with trees made of his power. Yamamoto and the two captains had to dodge to get away from it, and he used his abilities to direct the growth even into the ring of fire, attempting to smother the blaze.

The trees were huge with thick roots and branches, reminding him of his time back in the Leaf Village and the Land of Fire. If he could leap into the air, he would see a perfect replica of the Uzumaki clan's symbol.

Kyoraku and Ukitake joined him, standing beside him in preparation for the counter attack that would likely come. "Is this all it can do?" asked Kyoraku. "Fires burn down trees, you know? Especially his."

"This isn't all it can do," Naruto said. "These are supplied by my reiryoku. It should take much longer for them to burn."

"It's an impressive ability, but how will it help us?"

Naruto scoffed at Ukitake's question. "I literally control the battlefield now. I have the home field advantage."

As if on cue to demonstrate, Yamamoto suddenly appeared, his fires glowing as they spread through the forest. He was angled directly at Naruto, heading at far too fast a speed for a man his age.

The lieutenant made a quick gesture with his hands, causing the trees to thicken and snap against him. Roots whipped toward the Head Captain, but he burned through it all. Yamamoto shouted a battlecry and swiped his sword through the air, sending a torrent of flames into their direction.

Ukitake and Kyoraku made to move, but Naruto halted them.  **"Juhitate!"**  Tendrils suddenly snapped from the trees around them, bending to Naruto's will and forming a rotating shield of wood infused with Naruto's direct reiryoku. It looked as though they were in a dome carved out of the forest.

The flames collided with it, and to the surprise of Kyoraku and Ukitake, it held for several seconds. "It won't stay for long. Get ready to counter!" Naruto strengthened the shield, the orb gems on his hips glowing as he tried to make his shield ability more durable.

In a second, Yamamoto himself cut right through it, and Ukitake intercepted the rest of the flames descending on them, readying it to blast it back toward the Head Captain. Kyoraku moved to intercept but Naruto made another gesture with his hands.  **"Kusariki!"**

Out of the woods came several chains, with a longer and more powerful dagger attached and dressed with ornate orange and black designs. Three of the chains headed for Yamamoto's feet, one of them cutting into the man's ankle as he dodged. Naruto guided them back around, trying to cause them to all attack Yamamoto's central location at once.  **"Rasentane!"**

He concentrated on activating the attack one by one on each chain as it tried to blast him, but Yamamoto was deftly evading the explosive blasts that now formed a full leaf when they exploded. He parried the blades with his sword, and despite Naruto's best efforts to cause the chains to wrap around Yamamoto's blade, it didn't work. The man powered through it all like a tank, and Naruto realized once again that it just wasn't enough alone.

He got the signal from a burst of Ukitake's spiritual pressure, jumping backwards as Ukitake fired another concentrated blast of fire in Yamamoto's direction. Kyoraku joined them.

Naruto managed to hold Yamamoto in place by attacking him from all sides with several daggers, multiplying them as they were destroyed, and the Head Captain took a direct assault from all the power of his own attack.

Naruto huffed, looking down at his armor. The orb-like gems were dimming after every use of an ability, and he only had so much more he could do. He knew that he was only gaining the upper hand because Yamamoto did not expect to battle against three people, nor did he expect one of them to be a lieutenant with bankai.

"Okay, so you have a versatile bankai," he admitted. "But it's not enough. We need to all work together. There's no way that took him down."

"That's what I've been thinking ever since this started," Naruto said. "I've only got so much left." He pointed at a tree, and within seconds, he had a larger version of his weapon in his hand, about the length of a sword with thicker edges and no orbs. It was part of his Kusariki ability, to give him a close range weapon if worse came to worse.

"How much more forest do we have?" asked Ukitake.

Naruto did a mental count. "More than I would have thought, but not as much as we should."

"Can you make more?" asked Kyoraku.

Naruto frowned. "Yes, and no. If I do, I'll get set to zero." He pointed at the orb on his chest, which was already not glowing. "I have several techniques I can do, and each corresponds to one or two of the gems. The center one is my Moritane ability, the one used to create a forest. I can't do that one again this battle, without siphoning all of the other gems' power into it for one more."

Kyoraku had a thoughtful look on his expression. "Do it. We'll take care of the rest. Try to give us some cover for as long as you can, but don't overdo it." He looked pointedly at Ukitake and the two of them prepared to fight once more.

Naruto concentrated, seeing the orbs fade to black one by one until the central one appeared again, this time only two thirds of the way full. "Remember. Do it with stealth. Try to sneak. Don't be a big orange idiot like me."

Ukitake looked at him quizzically, but Naruto waved it off. "It's a long story that involves a closet full of the same god awful orange jumpsuit. Don't make me elaborate, please."

Kyoraku and Ukitake disappeared once more, and Naruto threw down his fist again.  **"Moritane!"**  The reiryoku spread into the earth once more, expanding the growth and filling in entire swaths of the woods that Naruto had created earlier. He tried to make it as dense as possible and to focus on sensing where Yamamoto was. When he found the impossibly strong captain, he concentrated on creating a tree underneath him, but the old man leaped out of the way of being impaled by the top of an artificial oak tree.

His bankai was only barely active, every gem inactive but the two on his palms allowing him to keep his manifested dagger in his hand. He was doing everything he had left to reinforce the trees from Yamamoto's fire. He could feel Ukitake and Kyoraku battling their former teacher without him, directly. The trees were only just so that he could see them on the very edge of his vision, and they were battling like three colossal giants of power. Naruto knew he would be closer to them one day, but it would take some time. He looked back on his decision to help fight with pride, because he had managed to hold his own against the Head Captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads for several minutes before he couldn't keep up any longer.

"Well, well, well," a voice behind him said. Naruto turned to see a familiar face obscured by the shade of the tree. "You've learned bankai. Congrats."

Temari walked toward him, and he was suddenly glad to see her. "Temari! I've never been happier to see a person in my life. Is there a way that you can help Captain Ukitake and Captain Kyoraku fight against Yamamoto?"

She smiled. "No, that would be suicide, without taking precautions. I'm surprised you aren't dead, but I don't have bankai, so maybe that's where we differ."

"What are you doing here anyway? Did you sense the commotion?" Naruto tried to keep his focus on the fighting and continuing to give them some kind of cover, but it was harder and harder with every second that ticked by.

"Half the Soul Society can sense the commotion," Temari said. "But no, I'm here because of you."

He wanted to ask what she meant, but in a split second, she activated a scroll of gauze on her arm, the Kido enveloping the two of them. "What's going on? What are you doing?"

"You're too impatient," she explained, before the scroll began to move much faster and in a blinding white flash of light, they disappeared.

* * *

"Momo!" Toshiro shouted, his emotional state causing his spiritual pressure to go wild. Within minutes, his cold presence would cause the room to freeze over, thin layers of ice covering everything.

Captain Aizen was inexplicably standing there next to Captain Ichimaru, with Momo at his feet. Blood dripped from her captain's sword.

Toshiro was suddenly clear of several things. Aizen had lied to Momo and had obviously faked his death. Gin was involved. Naruto had been there, in the Central 46 compound, transformed into some form of beast, and it looked as though he had killed the judges. Momo must have followed Toshiro here, and now she was lying there, probably about to die if something did not happen.

"What is the meaning of this, Captain? How are you alive? What have you done to Momo?"

The soft, brunette captain frowned. "C'mon, Hitsugaya. You're a smart man. What do you think?" His demeanor was too cold, too odd from what Toshiro knew of his fellow captain.

"You faked your death," Toshiro said. "But why? Nothing else adds up."

"I was just attempting to explain that to dear Momo," he said, gesturing to the body beneath him. "I like to talk, but I'm afraid I don't want to explain myself twice."

"Good thing then," Toshiro said, spiritual pressure rising. "I'll force you to give me the short version!" He released his sword and an icy-blue aura surrounded him.  _ **"Bankai!"**_ The water in the air around him gathered, creating powerful dragon-like wings of ice attached to his shoulders. His blade was attached to his arm by what looked to be a ice glove in the shape of a dragon's head, its jaws opening to reveal his hand holding the sword. Three lotus flowers appeared behind him, entirely made of ice and hovering over his back. He moved his sword through the air, ice drifting off of it and dusting the ground around him. _ **"Daiguren Hyourinmaru!"**_

His power spread immediately, covering much of the room in layers of ice, spikes forming on the floor in an effort to attack Aizen. The traitorous captain flashed out of sight, avoiding his initial attack.

The brunette leaped over his body completely, landing on the ground below the dais. Toshiro was glad that Aizen had moved away from Hinamori, but the girl was still laying near Gin.

The silver-haired captain was vaguely aware that two people entered the room. He already felt better, sensing both Unohana and her lieutenant Isane. "Now, Aizen. You've talked enough. Time to die."

The man had the nerve to smile in the face a sheer death. "Now, now. You shouldn't be making such strong remarks. It only makes you look weak." Aizen did not even flinch as Toshiro expelled his abilities, air freezing instantly around him in a brilliant display of light.

Instantly, Toshiro took off, using his wings to guide him, and impaled the captain on his sword. Cold air continued in that direction, freezing everything in his path. Ice completely surrounded Aizen, extending from the blade. But it didn't work. Aizen cocked a smile from underneath Toshiro's constructs.

Instantaneously, blood sprayed from his arm. It happened faster than his body could recognize the pain, and it was enough to break every bit of concentration that he had. Aizen had moved quickly enough to avoid detection and nearly cut off his entire arm. His Bankai fell apart, shattering to the ground.

"This... this is impossible!" Toshiro muttered, astonished.

Aizen held his bleeding zanpakutou out in front of him, but did not bother to turn around to watch Toshiro fall. "What a beautiful sight." After a moment, he turned around. "It's the wrong season, but I kind of like seeing ice this time of year." He continued to walk away from the younger captain, who was unable to make a single move against him.

"Captain Aizen!" Unohana stated with conviction. "No. That's wrong. After what I've witnessed, it wouldn't be right to call you that any longer. Sosuke Aizen... Your title is high traitor."

Aizen's smile never left his face, but there was more of an interest than in Gin's eternal grin. "Well, hello, Captain Unohana."

* * *

Momo was only just awake, but her concentration was slipping fast. She watched the confrontation with Unohana and Aizen, only able to understand every few words. She was dropping in and out, entire seconds fading away from her.

How could this have happened? Why would Aizen attack her? He had just finished explaining his role in trying to stop Naruto from accessing the Sokyoku's energy, but then she was attacked by him.

She did not want to believe it, but the realization hit her. It wasn't Naruto who had done this. It was him. But there were still several unanswered questions. Where did the Kyuubi fit into this? What was going on?

She felt the usage of the Kido before she saw it, and immediately, she knew it was forbidden. A space and time Kido. The gauze on Gin's arm started to unravel, swirling around the two captains. She almost wanted to get out of the way, because she was way too close to Gin's ankles.

A moment passed, a tiny moment, where Isane tried to run at the group. But the Kido continued, and with a flash of light, Momo, Gin, and Aizen vanished.

She vomited hard the moment she returned, and to her horror, nearly everything was blood. Gin looked down at her and frowned, but did not move away.

* * *

Naruto could truly not understand why she had just performed an illegal space and time Kido. Why were they on Sokyoku Hill all of a sudden?

He looked around, realizing that several things were very, very wrong now. Renji was kneeling on the ground near Captain Tousen, holding Rukia in his arms; the execution rescue must have taken place without a hitch, but where was Ichigo? He spotted a barely conscious and bleeding Hinamori, and his heart immediately skipped a beat. He subconsciously tightened his grip around the short sword he had created with Kusarimori Tenkai, out of pure anger.

The only other people on the Hill were Gin, Temari, and one other person that should have been impossible. Captain Aizen was standing in front of him, looking down at him as though he were above him. What was happening? How was this possible?

"Welcome, Renji. Welcome, Naruto," Aizen began, and Naruto wanted to stand up and kill the bastard with every fiber of his being. He instinctively knew that he had stabbed Momo. He knew it.

"What's going on?" asked the red-headed lieutenant.

"Leave Rukia where she is, Renji, and back away."

Naruto stood up from where he was, panting. Temari moved away from him out of reflex, afraid that he would attack her. She joined her captain. "Don't you dare listen to this bastard! Look at what he's done to Momo!"

Renji gasped, making a move to stand as well. Rukia had not noticed it either, and she gulped. "Momo! Captain Aizen, what have you done?"

"Answer us!" Naruto shouted, anger flowing from every fiber of his being. He was glad that he was still in bankai, but he didn't have any more power left to continue fighting with it. Not for several hours of rest.

The instant that the connection was established, Naruto knew it was a Tenteikura. The voice of Isane Kotetsu broke through and into his mind.  _"All Court Guard Squad Captains, Lieutenants, and Seated Officers, may I have your attention, please? And also the Ryoka. This is Squad Four Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu with an urgent announcement. Listen closely, as the message will not be repeated. This is an emergency report from Captain Unohana regarding the traitors in our midst. As grim as the following facts are, what I'm about to tell you is the truth."_

Naruto braced for the knowledge, staring the traitor directly in the face.

_"Captain Aizen, Captain Ichimaru, and Captain Tousen have betrayed the Soul Society. Ichimaru and Tousen helped Aizen fake his own murder in order to disappear from the grid. Lieutenant Hinamori encountered Aizen and was mortally wounded. Then, Captains Hitsugaya and Unohana found Aizen inside the Central 46 compound, and Hitsugaya was promptly defeated by the man. He claims to have faked his death in order to prevent an attack planned by the Kyuubi, a monster sealed with Naruto Uzumaki, and it appears that it did attack the compound and kill all forty six esteemed judges. Captain Unohana has reason to doubt his claims, as it appears that it was he who stabbed Lieutenant Hinamori. Aizen and Ichimaru vanished from the Central 46 compound, Hinamori in tow, and all officers are requested to immediately head to Sokyoku Hill. Please, take extreme caution when encountering him, as he lied about his shikai, which holds a powerful ability to completely hypnotize you into seeing whatever he wants."_

Naruto was astounded. "What a web of lies you've spun, you sadistic bastard! I didn't attack those people!"

Aizen smiled. "I saw a beast with two tails with my own eyes. If Momo lives after this day, she'll confirm that she saw the same."

"That's impossible!" he shouted. "I have an alibi! I was fighting Head Captain Yamamoto with Captain Kyoraku and Captain Ukitake!"

Aizen looked at him, his expression unchanging. "A bold decision. I'm surprised that you survived."

"Well, you're not going to survive me!" Naruto shouted, immediately rushing forward. Momo was his impetus, his drive to attack with the full force of whatever power he had left. He swung his sword in a downward diagonal, aimed right at the man's throat. In one move, Aizen side-stepped the attack and then stiff-armed him, throwing him several yards away and behind Renji and Rukia.

Whatever Aizen did, he made it impossible for him to move. He cursed, trying to stand again, but it wasn't working.

It was impossible for Naruto and the Kyuubi to be in two places at once, despite all of his clone shenanigans while he was alive. The Kyuubi was still in his mindscape, still attached to his body. He would have known if he had attacked the Central 46 members, but he didn't.

If Momo really did see the beast that he was referring to, as well as witnessed by Hitsugaya and Unohana, was there another Tailed Beast roaming around? Another jinchuuriki? Or was this all a part of Aizen's grand hypnosis?

"Now that that is settled, Renji, if you would, please put Rukia down and go on your merry way. If you don't, you'll surely end up worse than Naruto."

Renji's face settled into one of fiery determination. "I'm not leaving her behind."

"Very well," Aizen said, seeing Gin lift his palm to his sword. Aizen gestured for him to stop. "That won't be necessary, Gin." He started walking toward the redheaded lieutenant. "Since you won't put her down as I've ordered you, I have no choice. But I'll take your feelings into consideration. And I will let you have your way." Aizen placed one hand on his sword, drawing it slowly. "She can stay in your arms. The rest of you goes."

In the instant that Renji tried to stand, Aizen cut him down, blood spraying from his right torso. Rukia cried out for his safety, but it wasn't going to work. At this rate, Naruto knew that both Renji and Momo would die.

"I can see that your defensive skills have improved a great deal, Renji Abarai. I am happy to see that you've continued to progress. But I hope you won't struggle for too long. It's difficult for me to control my power. It's difficult to step on ants without crushing them." Renji continued to pant, trying to work through the pain. "And as your former superior, I really would like to avoid killing you if I don't have to."

"Renji!" Rukia said.

"It's all right, Rukia. Just shut up!" She stared at him in awe, as he looked back up at the man who had betrayed the Soul Society. "Yeah, right. You don't want to kill me? Then what about Momo? She's about to die in cold blood, right there! Bleeding to death as we speak!"

"What happened to Momo was unavoidable. I had trained her so that she couldn't live without me," Aizen said. "So don't you think that killing her was an act of mercy?"

Immediately, the Kyuubi's power rushed through his body. He couldn't take it anymore. He just lost all sense of control. Everything was instinct, every single movement and emotion. Naruto stood up and blasted himself at the monster in front of him, slashing with a claw and a sword at the same time.

Aizen was shocked as the attack made contact, but Renji could not be any more confused. "Naruto, what the hell? Why are you attacking over there?" Tousen had no visible reaction, but Temari was trying hard to hide her reaction to it. Gin's face didn't change.

Naruto kicked the man in the chest, sending him flying before grabbing onto him with one of his three tails and hurling him into the sky. Aizen turned in midair, quickly angling himself toward the jinchuuriki and slashing at his body.

Naruto fell the last few feet, seeing in the corner of his eye something orange flying toward them. He didn't recognize it, but the familiar spiritual pressures of the Ryoka were there. Nearly instantaneously, Renji's Zabimaru made contact with Aizen's zanpakutou.

Aizen frowned, tired of having to deal with peasants. "This is all meaningless." He effortlessly pushed the two off with a burst of spiritual pressure, powerful enough that they both hit the ground hard. He snapped his fingers and Kido suddenly bound Naruto to the ground, and despite his best efforts, they were permanent.

"Naruto!" Renji's zanpakutou lay shattered at his feet, with Rukia several feet away from him.

He moved to address Renji. "When I first met the three of you, I felt sure I could use you." Renji knew he was referring to Izuru, Momo, and himself. "That's why you were in Squad Five as soon as you joined the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. I made Izuru and Momo subordinates for Gin and myself, but you, however, were different. So I decided to send you, the problem child, away to a different Squad. And as it turns out, my instincts were correct." He paused, looking at Renji standing in front of Rukia. "I'll give you one more chance. Step away from Rukia, and you'll get to live your life."

"He'll do it, Captain Aizen!" pleaded Rukia. "I'll go with you, if you want! But please, leave them alone!"

"I refuse," Renji shouted.

"Renji, no!" Rukia argued.

"I won't let him have you, Rukia!" He turned to look at the captain, standing within range. "You thought I'd give her up, didn't you?"

Aizen smiled. "Does it really matter?" He raised his sword and prepared to end Renji's life in one fell swoop.

Instantly, someone arrived, and Naruto couldn't help but grin at the arrival of Ichigo. Orihime, Chad, and Ganju suddenly appeared as well, having ridden all the way to the top on her Santen Kesshun, and for the first time since learning about Momo's injuries, he felt secure.

"Orihime!" Naruto shouted, struggling underneath his bindings. "Save Momo! Please!"

The girl scoured the battlefield and nodded when she saw the injured girl laying near Gin's feet. "Okay!" Chad stood beside her, protectively, but Gin made no move to stop her. When Orihime called on her powers to start healing her, Naruto felt a sigh of relief.

Neither Tousen nor Gin seemed interested in stopping her from being healed. The message Aizen wanted to send was already sent. Whether or not she recovered was largely irrelevant.

Ichigo finished saying what he was saying, pushing Aizen's sword backwards and allowing Renji to get away, Rukia now in tow. They stood across from Aizen, very close to where Naruto was bound to the ground by Kido. The chakra from the Kyuubi had already disappeared, only the bare minimum activated, and Naruto knew he could, and should, break out and help.

He had to work through the analysis, and create a dispelling Kido for it due to its powerful nature. He needed more time, but he only had a few moments, at most. He knew that reinforcements were coming, people like Yamamoto and Yoruichi... they would be safe. The Ryoka were just the first batch.

He cycled through words that he knew, remembering the weeks that he spent with Momo and Izuru trying to create a new Kido from scratch. They had gotten stuck on a word, and he still couldn't figure out what word to complete the Kido's incantation.

Finally, he worked through the composition of the Kido Aizen had used on him, and within seconds, he was up again. He joined Renji and Ichigo, still with the bare minimum of his bankai activated. He held up the short sword, hoping that it would be enough.

"Nice of you to join us, Ichigo," he said, his eyes still changed slightly under the Kyuubi's influence. Ichigo seemed to fixate on that for a second too long, and Naruto had no idea what was going through his mind.

"I know. I'm always late for the party," he said, only lightly grinning. He felt confident in his new abilities, Naruto could tell. "So. This is Aizen, then."

"Yes," Naruto agreed.

"That's him."

"Do you think you still have enough strength to get her away?" asked Ichigo.

"I have enough to stay and fight. I know that for certain," he said. "That's what I'm going to do. You know damned well that it's useless for us to run. Zabimaru may be broken, but he still has a few surprises left in him. Let's just slow him down enough to get away."

"Heh. Who needs a plan B? If we join forces and battle together, what could go wrong?"

Naruto frowned, but the group split up. He immediately using his enhanced speed and Shunpo slammed against the metallic blade with his own, catching it on the prongs and holding it tight. **"Shakkaho!"** A fiery blast erupted from his hand, and Naruto kicked off of Aizen's body to flip backward and land away from him.

He moved just in time for Renji's technique to activate. The shattered pieces of his zanpakutou began to glow with the red aura of Renji's spiritual pressure, levitating higher into the air and circling around Aizen's head, before crashing down all at once from all directions.  **"Higa Zekko!"**

Using his enhanced speed, Ichigo blasted forward, aiming for the opening that both Naruto and Renji created. He crashed through the smoke cloud and was immediately stopped, his entire attack and all its momentum stopped with one single finger holding his blade in place.

Aizen's finger clamped down on the blade, and Ichigo's entire body erupted with blood. Ichigo was severely injured now, to the point where he would be unable to move almost immediately. "Well now. I thought I had cut you completely in half, but I suppose I did not strike deep enough."

"Ichigo!" Renji shouted, shocked at how easily that had just happened. But within another second, the lieutenant barely had time to wonder where he had gone, before Aizen cut deeply into the other shoulder and back of Renji and completely stopped him.

Naruto was keenly aware that he was the last one standing. He looked over to the Ryoka, Chad and Orihime standing over Momo, and he placed himself between them. He had no energy left, and he couldn't help but wonder how he would fare in a battle with Aizen when he hadn't fought against the strongest shinigami in existence a few moments before.

Aizen smiled at him for a moment, before raising a single finger.  **"Byakurai."** The low-powered attack was anything but low-powered, the massive ray of electricity heading right for both Naruto and the Ryoka behind him. Chad threw up an arm defensively, and Orihime threw up a shield to protect herself. Naruto knew that he couldn't let them or Momo be hurt again, so he poured every last bit of his power into a final Danku barrier.

It shattered the moment that the electricity hit, arcing through his body. He fell to the ground, completely unconscious and unaware if he was successful or not at dissipating enough of his Kido to protect them.

* * *

Momo had been in and out of consciousness for the last several minutes, but she had witnessed Naruto fighting alongside Renji to avenge her, apparently using the Kyuubi and some kind of three-tailed form that formed a cloak of energy over his body.

The power was unreal, but Aizen's power was far greater. He had been able to counter his efforts and stop him. Momo woke again a few minutes later, and Naruto was lying unconscious next to her underneath a bubble of yellow-orange energy. Above her was a girl with red hair, holding her hands over the dome and saying something about staying calm and being okay. She couldn't really concentrate on the girl's words, but she knew it was some form of healing spell. It felt warm and cold.

Momo tried to focus, turning to watch what was happening outside the bubble. Several captains and lieutenants had suddenly arrived, trying to apprehend the four traitors. She could not hear their conversations yet, but if she focused on it, she could get bits and pieces.

When she saw the yellow light pierce the sky and surround the four traitors, all at once, her entire body stiffened. It was from Hueco Mundo, a spell called Negacion. She had read about it, studied, and it was terrifying.

She looked over at Naruto, wishing him to get better quickly. As everyone watched the display of them leaving, Momo stood up.

"Wait, you can't! You're still hurt!" Orihime shouted.

Momo shook her head, ignoring her and walking out of the healing shield and toward the Sokyoku stand. They were escaping to Hueco Mundo through an impenetrable dimensional space, and Momo had to do something.

She wasn't thinking. Wasn't using her brain. She just started to chant, raising her hands to point at the execution stand.

_**"My right hand is the stone that bridges worlds. My left hand is the blade that binds reality. The black-haired shepherd is hung from a chair. Stratus clouds come, and I strike down the ibis!"** _

She smiled at her handiwork, but she was so physically and emotionally broken that she couldn't really enjoy it. She had worked for weeks on this spell with Naruto and Izuru, and now she was leaving both of them using it. She was not acting rationally, or intelligently. But she had to do something to get even with Aizen for what he did to her and to Naruto, and this was the way to do it.

The Garganta opened between the two pieces of wood, a crack in space that lead to a black and white in-between world. No one seemed to notice her, but she wanted it that way. She wanted to do this herself, and it was something that she alone could do.

She turned to watch Aizen and his group disappear into the clouds, past the point of no return for the shinigami. But for Momo, she could follow them. Eliminate them. She owed it to herself to try.

The instant that she disappeared into the space, heading toward Heuco Mundo, the Garganta closed like the maw of a beast snapping shut on its prey. The last thing she heard was the voice of Orihime, calling out to her.

* * *

Naruto stayed perfectly still in the hospital, trying not to cry. It had been days now since Aizen's departure. It had been days since Momo left with the spell that only she had mastered. He had been writing endlessly in a journal, trying to figure out the word that would bind to the scroll, but it wouldn't work. He had already had someone go and check to see if the scroll was in Momo's office, but she had not written it down. Only she knew the incantation that worked, and she was stuck, injured, in the land of hollows where Aizen and his traitors had fled with the Hogyoku.

He hated this. He hated every last moment of this. He had tried so hard to become strong enough to win against any opponent, but his bankai wasn't enough. The Kyuubi wasn't enough. He needed more. He needed to send a group of people into the territory of the enemy, and he needed to head the operation. But no one knew how to get there, and their top scientist was apparently working on some secret project ever since he was defeated by Uryu.

The door opened, much to his annoyance. Orihime and Sakura walked into the room, and Naruto turned away from them.

"So you don't want to talk."

Naruto didn't say anything.

"I brought you my special bacon rice cakes!" Orihime tried, and Naruto wished he could plug his nose politely. They smelled horrid. "Oh. Okay. That usually works on Tatsuki, but it's fine if you don't want any."

"What do you want?" he finally asked. "I just want to sulk."

"I just wanted to see if you were all right," Sakura said. "It's been a rough few days for all of us. Toshiro hasn't come out of his office or Squad Five's office. He's been handling all of their paperwork until they can get a replacement."

"Good for him," Naruto muttered, both angry and sad at the mention of Squad Five. "If you don't have something productive, can you please give me some more space?"

"Well, I also wanted to see if you would like to join us in finding Uryu," Orihime said solemnly. "No one has seen or heard from him in a long time. He fought against Captain Kurotsuchi and then disappeared. We're trying to create a big search party, with as many people as we can."

Naruto turned around on the bed to look at them. "Here. I'll try to help." He took the ink he had been using to write, walked over to the table, and created an array, an array that Sakura immediately recognized.

"That won't work," she explained. "We've had people already try."

"Well, when you're trying to find a faint spiritual pressure, it always works best when it's used by someone who knows it best." Naruto gestured for Orihime to put her hands on the sides of the array. "Don't worry, you're not casting the spell. You're just going to be using it to search for him."

 **"Heart of the south, eye of the north, finger of the west, foot of the east, arrive with the wind and depart with the rain. Bakudo Number Fifty-eight: Kakushitsuijaku!"**  Power flowed into the array from Naruto, and Orihime placed her hands on either side of it. "Try to find his spiritual pressure, using the spell as the conduit. If this doesn't work, Uryu isn't here."

The blue light of the spell illuminated their faces, and Sakura was unsure if this would work or not. But soon enough, Orihime frowned. "He's... not here. There's not even a trace of his reiatsu. Where could he be?"

Naruto frowned. "It's possible that he's outside the walls. Or hell, maybe he found some odd way home." He shot a look at Sakura, and she nodded.

"Orihime, could you step outside for a minute?" The girl nodded, looking at them oddly before leaving. "He's dead, isn't he?"

Naruto nodded. "That's probably what happened. What else could explain his total disappearance?"

"Well, if he's dead, someone should have used konso on his soul. That would work that way, right? He's human."

Naruto honestly didn't know, and he really didn't care deep down. He wanted them to get their friend back, but it wasn't really his issue anymore. "If we're lucky, someone made him pass on and he's in the Rukongai right now. If not, then he's missing. Maybe you guys should pressure Captain Kurotsuchi a bit more."

Sakura smiled. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." She made to turn around, but eventually changed her mind. "I know you have gotten tired of people asking, but are you sure you're okay?"

"No, Sakura, I'm not," he answered truthfully. "I hate sitting here, waiting for something to happen. We don't know anything about Aizen's next move, if there's even going to be a next move, and my girlfriend is over there with that sick bastard. She probably left me for him at this point, despite the fact that she was fucking stabbed by him, and this whole goddamned thing is my fault."

Sakura had never heard so many curse words spoken by him in one sentence, but then again, she didn't remember their childhood years like he did. "Oh, come on. You're not serious, are you?"

"Why else would she have left? She could have left that portal open for everyone to use, and we all could have followed Aizen back to Hueco Mundo and kicked his ass. Why would she have gone alone? I'm a shitty person, Sakura. She would have never believed Aizen's lie about the Kyuubi if I had just explained it all to her in the first place."

"Look. I'm in the same mess you are. Unohana disbanded the Interdimensional Relief Team that I worked so hard to start, because I abused that and ended up helping the Ryoka," explained Sakura. "She said that it would prevent the nobles from punishing me further when the word got around that I helped them, even if they are 'the heroes of the Soul Society.' Had I stuck to my guns and left when I was supposed to, I'd still be getting to go to the World of the Living and help people."

Naruto nodded, clapping her on the shoulder. "She probably did what was best."

Someone knocked on the door, and Sakura walked over to let them in. It was Lieutenant Sasakibe, who bowed to the both of them as he entered. They did the same. "Lieutenant Uzumaki, you have a summons to meet with Head Captain Yamamoto immediately."

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Okay. Thank you, Lieutenant." Naruto gestured for Sakura to leave the room, shutting it behind him. "I guess you guys are handling the paperwork for me to leave?" Sasakibe remained straight-faced, but did not comment. "I'm going to hope that's a yes. I hate paperwork."

* * *

Naruto would rather be anywhere else than to go and see the Head Captain. He still remembered the heat on his face, the impossibly strong spiritual pressure. He did not want to go, because he did not want to face the Head Captain directly, on a one on one situation, for at least another fifty years.

He entered the room and was surprised to see Captain Ukitake as well as the bearded shinigami. He bowed lightly and took his place beside Captain Ukitake. "It's good to see you again, Head Captain."

"Likewise, Lieutenant Uzumaki," the man said. "But I'm afraid that this visit is not for pleasantries."

"Oh." He peered at Ukitake for some kind of advice, but his captain did not do anything but give him his normal, healthy smile.

"During the time after this great tragedy, I have special war powers granted due to the death of Central 46," he explained. "Do the vacuum of power, I'm allowed to make decisions and judgments that I think would be best for the Soul Society's future. I have thought long and hard about this, and your captain and I have come to an agreement. This decision was made for your best interests, and in the best interests of the Soul Society in regards to its upcoming conflict."

Naruto gulped. He could practically feel the tension in the air.

"Naruto Uzumaki, you are hereby stripped of all title and rank and banished indefinitely to the World of the Living. You will leave with the Ryoka tomorrow morning, never to return."

Everything he had ever known shattered like the world's largest pane of glass. Everything he had ever built, every relationship he had with the people he loved here. It was all gone. All of it. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, and he wished that he could understand the reasoning behind it.

"Are you going to tell me why? Or am I going to wonder about it for the rest of eternity?" He looked from Yamamoto to Ukitake, and neither man seemed willing to explain. "This is ridiculous. I'm sorry, but I just don't get it. This is batshit crazy."

"Sometimes we have to make hard decisions," Ukitake tried. "I promise that this is what is best for you."

Yamamoto gave him one look, and he immediately turned to leave the room. "I'm going to storm out of here, as is my right. I'll say goodbye later, Captain." He dropped his lieutenant's badge on the floor on his way out.

* * *

Later that night, everyone forced Naruto to go out drinking. Everyone was there, even the Ryoka. They didn't feel like celebrating though; their search for Uryu was a failure, and the shinigami refused to give them an extension into finding him.

Naruto tried to have fun. He really did. But realizing that he wouldn't see his friends ever again was hard. Shikamaru tried to tell him his theory about what Aizen was really after, about how it would involve Karakura Town because it was a Juureichi, but Naruto didn't feel like listening.

The night went about as well as you could expect. Rangiku was drinking as much as she could to try to forget about her feelings for Gin, and that included trying to seduce her captain, despite the fact that almost everyone at the table thought it was insanely weird. Tenten ended up being the only sober one, outside of the Ryoka who chose not to drink. Ichigo seemed bored out of his mind, despite the fact that Rukia was trying to tell him all about the Soul Society's culture. Naruto was bored too, just listening to it outside of earshot. Chad was his kind of guy that night, because Naruto didn't have much to say and Chad only spoke when he had something good to say. Everyone was trying really hard not to mention anything about Momo to him, and of course, it was so obvious that it made him think about her more.

Eventually, someone asked the number one question, and Naruto was surprised to hear it was Ichigo. "So what are you going to do when you get back to the World of the Living?"

Naruto finally answered. "I'm going to spend some time at home, I think."

He missed the Elemental Nations, even though he had a few bad visits here and there. He needed to get his seal checked out anyway by the toads on Mount Myoboku. But it was a partial lie, because he didn't plan on staying there for long. He didn't plan on staying in the dimension for long.

They all seemed to like that idea, but no one liked the idea of him having to leave. When everyone started trying to hug him, he finally just cut them off. "Guys, you're probably going to be able to see me again. Stop acting like you won't. I'm sure that I'll be around somewhere you can find me, if you're ever on assignment in the World of the Living."

The night eventually came to a close, and everyone offered to pitch in for his meal. Naruto refused but Sakura insisted, and there was no arguing with her.

Shikamaru finally caught him alone, just before he was going to walk back to his barracks. "Naruto, wait up."

He frowned. "What's up now?"

"Well, I wanted to ask you this, because you never opened up about it. Did they give you an explanation?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. Not a real one. They just said it was in my best interest."

Shikamaru smiled. "I figured that they would say something like that. Do you want to know what I think?"

The Third Seat of Squad Eight was definitely the smartest person that Naruto knew. If anyone could discern that, it was him.

"Naruto, how many times did you formally ask for help to get to Hueco Mundo, and then help to save her?"

"Nine," he explained.

"Okay. Let's analyze this," Shikamaru began. "You have a power hidden inside of you that you shouldn't have, by all rights, even though you can't control that you have that power. Aizen somehow framed the Kyuubi for the murders of the Central 46, in order to try to pin some blame on you, but then decided to reveal himself to Hitsugaya and Unohana anyway by stabbing Momo. Why would he do that? Wouldn't it have been easier to try to pin all of it on you?"

"Yeah, probably," he agreed. "Where are you going with this?"

"When a new Central 46 is chosen, the judges are going to think that the Kyuubi killed the last group," Shikamaru explained. "Even with everything going on with Aizen, they will still fear your power, and see it as a direct threat to them. Naruto, you'd be executed."

"So they saved me from execution by exile, while the Head Captain still could?" he asked, but then the dots clicked. "Wait. So they are also allowing me to go after Momo if I so choose, because all of those requests were denied."

"Exactly," Shikamaru stated. "They are giving you autonomy, Naruto. But they also will expect you to have a vendetta against Aizen, as much as any of us. You may actually have more of a vendetta than anyone else in the Soul Society. You're a military asset, Naruto, that we can't afford to lose."

"Great," he said, annoyed. "So I'm being used as a political tool. Because that's not familiar at all." The Kyuubi roared in his mindscape in sarcastic agreement.

Shikamaru smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is.

Naruto had to ask. "Do you think that there was another jinchuuriki?"

"I don't know if there was or not," Shikamaru stated. "It could have been Aizen making us think whatever the hell he wanted. But if it was, I think we know at least two things from that." When Naruto didn't say anything, Shikamaru counted them off. "One: Aizen is gathering bijuu to use as weapons. Two: Aizen was the one who spread the sekkisekki chemical into the atmosphere around the Elemental Nations in order to hide his operations."

Naruto rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "That would explain why Soul Society has such limited knowledge on all of this. Because Aizen never wanted us to know about this. Maybe he even wiped the databases or something about them."

"It's possible," Shikamaru said. "I'm going to request to launch a full investigation into the Elemental Nations. I don't know if it will be accepted or not, but if all this is true, I think we need to learn as much as we can about them."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Let me know how that goes."

Shikamaru smiled. "You could always help, you know. You're a free agent."

"I don't think I'll be home for very long, Shikamaru," explained Naruto. "But I'll help if I can."

Shikamaru seemed to notice the double meaning, but he didn't comment. Naruto was glad for Shikamaru sometimes, because he didn't always tell you when you were being stupid.

Going to Hueco Mundo alone was a very, very stupid idea. If he could even figure out how to get there.


	25. Starting Off With a Bang

"What the hell, Yoruichi!?" Ichigo yelled, running at his top speed through the Dangai. His friends surrounded him, with Naruto rounding out the back. "If this is the official gate, then why do we have to run for our lives just like the last time?!"

The former lieutenant was cursing his apparent inability to use a Hell Butterfly to get through the Dangai. He supposed that the others had planned for that, as expected.

"We each need a Hell Butterfly to clear the gate safely," explained the cat. "Only a shinigami can handle them! Relax, we're almost at the exit!"

Seconds later, they ran directly through the square gap in the sky, into the warm air overlooking the city. Naruto looked around at everyone, realizing that they were going to fall. He aimed to fire a Kido to stabilize them and give them something to ride, but someone else seemed to have a better idea.

 **"Santen Kesshun! I reject!"**  Orihime's shield materialized, its triangular shape extending until they all landed on it safely, stopping their quick descent toward the ground.

"Well, well, well," a voice said as they all tried to recover. Naruto coughed a few times for good measure, before glancing at the source. "And here I had a plan in mind to catch you, for that exact reason. And it involved baseball bats and missile launchers. Good job, Orihime."

Standing on the edge before them was a man Naruto had only dealt with a few times while on business in Karakura Town and its surrounding area. Kisuke Urahara, the infamous former Squad Twelve captain. Naruto wondered what he and Yoruichi had done together to be exiled.

"Thank you, Mr. Urahara!" Orihime said with a smile.

The blonde man looked around at everyone. "I see you gained an Uzumaki, but where is Ishida?" He had an amusing tone, but his expression was slowly turning into anything but.

Yoruichi spoke up after the three humans did not comment. "Uryu Ishida is missing. He fought and defeated Kurotsuchi, but soon after that, he vanished without a trace. His spiritual pressure completely disappeared, but no one expects that he has died."

Urahara frowned. "Did Kurotsuchi take him?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. Squad Twelve had a full search from Squad Thirteen during the days after the invasion. We, I mean, they investigated the ruins of the explosion that killed Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, but there was no sign of Uryu."

Orihime cleared her throat, remembering her and Sakura's encounter with Lieutenant Kurotsuchi and Shikamaru Nara. "I was there, and he wasn't there with me. He left through the normal area, and I fled down a secret tunnel."

"Secret tunnel?" asked Urahara.

"Yeah. There was a tunnel that connected the basement of the Great Spiritual Library to Kurotsuchi's personal lab," explained Orihime. "There was some kind of blade on display, probably a zanpakutou."

Urahara's entire expression changed for a split second, but Naruto took note of it. He wondered if anyone else noticed it. "A sword underneath the Library... Well, I guess the creepy fool needed to do some light reading."

Ichigo looked up toward him after a long moment. "I should be annoyed that you didn't tell us what we needed to know before we left, but I'm not."

The man frowned. "I am truly sorry, Ichigo. I hope you will accept my apology."

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "I guess so. I can't begin to guess what your motivations were. In the end, you helped all of us become stronger. You probably saved our lives. For that, we're all thankful, so please, don't apologize."

Urahara nodded. "Okay."

"But I do want to ask you one question," Ichigo added, looking him in the eye. "Why didn't you tell us the truth? Did you think I would get scared and run away?"

Urahara suddenly grinned. "That is exactly right!" Ichigo elbow collided with the man's nose, before he turned away from him.

"Now that just pisses me off," Ichigo said, fuming.

"You were taking it so well! I didn't expect an elbow to the face."

"One other thing," Ichigo began. "I want you to apologize to Rukia when you next see her. And know that she will say the same thing that I'd say. Will you do that for me?"

A solemn moment passed before he finally agreed. "Yes."

* * *

Naruto leaped from tree to tree, training his abilities to their fullest. The thick forest was created entirely by him and his bankai, Kusarimori Tenkai. He was getting better at using his abilities without exhausting the limited amount of energy he had for each one. His skill with controlling the chains and trapping targets was top-knotch, but he still needed to work on speed and attack power.

"Was it really necessary to turn my training ground into a forest?" someone stated from below him. Naruto stopped moving, jumping to the ground in front of Urahara. He touched one of the trees to his left and caused the effect of his bankai to retract. In a few moments, the woods had disappeared into his bankai again.

"Sorry about that," he said. "I need to keep getting better. We're on a limited timescale."

Urahara nodded lightly. "That's true. I wanted to get your point of view on what happened. Tell me how you're handling all of it."

"Why the sudden interest?" Naruto barked.

The man frowned. "It's not sudden. I just want to hear from you, get to know you better if you're going to be stayin-"

"I'm not going to be staying with you, Urahara. I don't even think I'll be staying in Karakura Town; this is a one-night thing."

The man smiled. "So you'll be heading back to the Elemental Nations tomorrow?"

"Yes. Yoruichi told you." He didn't wait for him to confirm it. "I just feel like I need to go there, you know. I need to have my seals examined for sure, but I think I'd like to stay there."

Urahara pondered it for a moment. "Seals? Can you show them to me?"

Naruto opened his shirt and channeled a bit of his energy to reveal the spiral mark on his stomach. The man stared at them for a moment, memorizing its shape for future reference. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

When Urahara actually produced a camera from somewhere in his robes, Naruto rolled his eyes and fixed his shirt.

"You're no fun," the former captain whined, putting the camera back in his clothes. "I think it's incredibly interesting, Naruto. The intricacy of the seals holding back all of that power."

"What do  _you_  know about sealing jutsu? Or jutsu at all?" He did not intend for it to sound as antagonistic as it did.

Urahara shook his head, trying to make him understand that he meant no disrespect. "Sorry! I know it has to be a touchy subject for you. I just know a little bit from scrolls that I've found. Nothing more than that, and definitely not anything that I can use. No chakra for me; that seems to be something that only people from your home turf can do."

Naruto found his actions a little bit suspicious, but he needed to shrug all that off. "Can you show these scrolls to me?"

"I'll do you better," Urahara said, excited. "You can have them."

The former lieutenant followed the man upstairs after sheathing his zanpakutou. He guided the younger man into the store room, and after a moment, produced a single very thick scroll. He recognized it immediately: it was the Scroll of Seals, where he learned the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu so long ago. "Oh man, this brings back so many memories. But you said there were more than one. Where are the rest?"

Urahara smiled, pointing at it. "When you open that, you probably need to do it in a very large room. There's an entire library inside that thing."

Naruto got the message, but he was tempted to know just how many smaller scrolls were sealed within the larger one. And how Kisuke had actually used the scroll to put more of them into it.

As if to answer his very thought process, Urahara reassured him. "I suppose it would be easier if I knew how to use scrolls like a shinobi, but figuring out the right combination of Bakudo to mimic that skill was annoying." After another second, he cleared his throat. "So do you want some tea?"

It was such an odd change in topic. "Uh... sure."

A human Yoruichi and Tessai joined them, while Jinta and Ururu argued over whose turn it was to sweep. Tessai left to fetch the tea, when Urahara finally asked it again. "So... tell me all about it. What happened?"

Naruto finally began to talk, explaining everything that had happened over the past few months, all of it leading up to Naruto's exile. From helping to extend Rukia's assignment in Karakura Town, to helping the Ryoka save her. He opened up about Momo, detailing all the drama that unfolded around him and her.

"And then she created a Garganta and followed Aizen into Hueco Mundo. Now I don't even know what to do or how to get there."

Tessai sat down his tea. "A Garganta? How was she able to do that?"

"Well, she and I and Lieutenant Kira were working on a Kido spell that could open a Garganta for weeks," Naruto explained. "We ran into a hiccup with the last word of the incantation, because we couldn't get it to connect with the center of the array on the scroll that binds it. Momo must have figured it out, but in all the chaos of the invasion, it never came up."

Kisuke took a sip from his mug, trying to disguise his reaction. "That's interesting, Naruto. You would have done a great thing for the Soul Society, to create a way for them to get into Hueco Mundo."

"Yeah, yeah. But now I can't do it. I don't even think I know how the rest of the incantation goes now." He groaned, wishing that someone would give him a miracle. "I need to save her. I need to protect her from Aizen, bring her back before he does something to her. Every bit of this is my fault!"

A moment of silence passed before Yoruichi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Trust me, Naruto. There's plenty of blame to go around. I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. You are at fault here. But you aren't the only person at fault. Momo shares a piece of it, but most of it all goes onto Aizen's shoulders. He was the orchestrator of the entire affair. I'm almost certain that he's the reason that you even have the Kyuubi in the first place."

Naruto nodded. "That's what Shikamaru was saying. He was on the Dark Ones' side when this whole thing started for me, and now I'm the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki again. That can't be a coincidence."

"No. You're probably both right," Urahara said. "If it weren't just a scam with his hypnosis zanpakutou, there had to have been another jinchuuriki in the Soul Society that day, so that he could frame you for the destruction of Central 46."

Yoruichi suddenly slammed her cup down. "He intended for you to be exiled. This bastard thinks of everything several moves ahead; it's impossible."

Naruto inwardly cursed. Every detail was so carefully crafted to fit a certain outcome. It was like Aizen was weaving fate itself, controlling the probabilities.

"Then he's going to be gathering the rest of the Bijuu, if he doesn't have them already," Jinta stated, summing up their fears.

Urahara grinned. "Well, I can assure you that he doesn't have at least two of them."

Naruto frowned. "What do you mean? I have the Kyuubi, but how would you know about another one?"

The man in the odd hat grinned so wide it seemed impossible and reminded Naruto of Gin, and not in a good way.

* * *

She truly did not want to return from the summer break, but the second semester was about to begin. She had a match coming up in a couple months, plus all the stuff that had happened to her recently. Tatsuki twisted the ring she was wearing around her finger.

Keigo was already there, too boisterous for the first day after summer break. Mizuiro was, of course, glued to his cell phone; Tatsuki shared Keigo's confusion about how the kid managed to attract so many high school girls.

She peered toward Ichigo's empty seat, and it seemed like that Sado kid was missing too. And Orihime wasn't here. "Surely they wouldn't miss the first day back." Were they really not back from that place?

"Of course we wouldn't," a voice behind her said, before hugging her warmly. Orihime was always the bubbly one.

Ichigo and Chad stood next to them, and Tatsuki could see their weathered faces. Something had happened to them over the summer. She may not have known Chad very well, but he looked older. More experienced. Ichigo looked like he was trying to hold everything in, giving him an almost constipated look.

"Where's Ishida?" she asked suddenly, knowing that he had gone with them.

Ichigo looked at her with bewilderment. "What do you mean? I barely know the guy. He's probably sick or something."

Tatsuki peered at him. "What's the point of lying, Ichigo?"

Orihime and Ichigo were completely bewildered by her questioning. Of course, they didn't know that she was on to them at all. They didn't know that she could see spirits and interact with them. They didn't know a lot of things about her in the past few weeks.

Chad, however, seemed to pick up on her. "He's missing. We don't know where he is."

Tatsuki had not known him at all, but hearing that shocked her. What had they gone through? What kinds of things had they faced? "Wow. You three have some explaining to do."

Miss Ochi walked into the room and called everything to order, and the teens eventually found their seats. Ichigo was not listening, staring openly at the empty seat and Tatsuki frowned. He probably blamed himself for this very heavily.

It seemed like hours passed when something flared on the horizon, a gut feeling that something was coming. "A hollow," she muttered under her breath. The girl looked around the room, realizing that the spiritually aware had all noticed it. When Ichigo called to go to the bathroom, Tatsuki made her move, instantly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

She ran down the hall, trying to get there first. She wanted to prove herself to her friends, to teach them that she could handle herself as well as anyone else. She'd have to explain the smoke later to Miss Ochi, but she'd take whatever punishment she received for using the Body Flicker Jutsuto get out of the room unnoticed **.**

She finally managed to get to the hollow, much faster than the last hollow she fought. The creature was somewhat serpentine, with a long body and a round, fanged mask. It had two long arms that ended in scythes.

The hollow laughed heartily.  **"Oh, so it appears that the humans come to me now. Good. It makes it so much easier."**

The hollow rushed at her, but she pivoted around on her left foot to evade the sharp limb, channeled yin chakra into her right fist, and delivered a haymaker to the hard surface of the creature's mask. There was a resounding _smack_  as it crashed against the wall of the next building, thirty yards over.

**"A little bit of fight in you, huh? That hurt entirely more than it should, but I'll return the favor!"**

The hollow released a mist from the fangs of its mask, spraying the entire block with an acidic poison; it corroded the concrete around the hollow, and she had to back away as quickly as she could.

Tatsuki reached into the waistband of her skirt, pulling a kunai from a hidden pouch. She attached the roll of paper, wishing she had more than one, but this would have to do. The mist was spreading far too quickly, but if she did this right, she'd have an opening.

She made a quick dash to the right, throwing the kunai and paper bomb. The hollow made to dodge it, but it didn't matter. The kunai passed directly through it, landing on the ground in front of the hollow.

**"Well, that was useless! Why didn't it hit me?"**

"It was never supposed to hit you, so I didn't add spirit energy to it." She made a single hand sign, and the paper bomb exploded, sending a cloud of smoke and fire throughout the area. Tatsuki focused on the ring, her joints and muscles tightening involuntarily, before she leaped forward into the cloud of smoke and fire. She had used the explosion to dissipate the hollow's mist, and as she landed, she immediately punched into the hollow's gut, sending it tumbling down the stairs toward the river.

Tatsuki was lucky that no one had been around, or they could have been hurt by the paper bomb going off. She needed to learn how to draw seals in such a way that they only use yin chakra, or reiryoku, so that paper bombs don't attract attention. She had to use whatever she could find, and this one was preloaded with normal chakra, a mixture of both spiritual and physical energy.

She drew another kunai, getting ready to finish it off, when she felt the familiar presence on the back of her mind. She turned to see Ichigo rushing to the scene, carrying his sword, and slashing into the hollow to purify it.

"Hey, Ichigo!" she shouted, hoping to freak him out. By all rights, she shouldn't have been able to see him. Tatsuki let go of the chakra she had built up, relaxing slightly as some of the power she borrowed returned to the ring. "You're late!"

The redhead stared at her in surprise. "You can see me?"

"Yeah. I did all the dirty work too," Tatsuki said, gesturing to the site of the explosion, where people were already gathering from the noise. "I was just about to finish off that hollow when you got here."

Ichigo was bewildered, but his attention seemed to focus on the kunai in her hand. "Is that a zanpakutou? Did someone give you shinigami powers?"

Tatsuki just laughed. "No on both accounts." She placed the kunai back into the hidden pouch. "I'll let the shopkeeper explain it to you."

* * *

Naruto looked at the tiny black ball in his hand, before storing it in his shihakusho. It was a portable gigai for blending into the World of the Living. He would need it if he needed to interact with anyone in the Elemental Nations, barring the Hyuuga clan he had interacted with before.

"I'm thankful for this, but why give it to me? I mean, I'm not going to be there for very long. A day or two, tops, before I head into Hueco Mundo."

Tessai looked as though he was going to answer, but Urahara cut him off. "I have a feeling that you'll want to stay for longer than a couple of days. And besides, do you know of a way to follow Hinamori yet?"

"No, I still have to figure that out. But why are you being so cryptic?" Naruto was starting to get upset playing with Urahara's mind games. He could understand why Ichigo was tired of dealing with him. "You tell me that you think I'll stay longer, and not even an hour ago, you were saying that you know where a second Bijuu is, like you've hidden one away from Aizen."

"Urahara!" someone shouted from the door.

"Oh, look, we have guests," the man said far too quickly.

"This conversation isn't over!" Naruto shouted, following after him so fast that he spilled his tea in the process.

Naruto passed into the front of the shop, surprised to see Ichigo, in shinigami gear, and a girl with short black hair wearing a familiar school uniform. She must be one of Ichigo's friends, but how could she see him? He noticed the ring on her finger, and he couldn't place where he had seen it before, but it was familiar.

"So the cat's out of the bag," Urahara said with a smile. "Or I guess in this case, the insect has escaped the net."

Tatsuki grinned, and Ichigo was pissed. "What's going on?"

"Well, I could give you the full explanation, but I think you and Uzumaki here will appreciate the short version," the shopkeeper said, clearing his throat. "During my exile from the Soul Society, I became interested in a land rumored to be filled with humans with special abilities. Decades ago, I found these islands and attempted to immerse myself in their shinobi culture. I was largely unsuccessful at becoming a shinobi myself, but I did manage to procure a few interesting artifacts." He gestured to the ring on Tatsuki's hand. "Like her ring, and the scrolls that I gave you, Uzumaki."

Naruto didn't know why, but he felt suspicious and a little bit on edge around the seemingly friendly man. He must have found the ruins of the Hidden Leaf and stole things that didn't belong to him. It made him uneasy.

"Cut to the chase, Urahara," Ichigo said. "This is obviously turning into the long version."

"Well, you know this much of the story. Your initial shinigami powers were unstable and caused a lot of changes in the people around you. Several of your friends were affected in ways that granted them special powers suited to their background and personalities."

"Except for me," explained Tatsuki. "I got bits and pieces, enough to be able to see spirits and interact with them. But no powers like Chad or Orihime."

"Exactly," Urahara said. "So in the interest of her desire to protect those she cares about, I decided to give her that ring. And a little bit of training how to use it, using the scrolls from my travels."

 _So whatever he did to that ring gave her the ability to use chakra,_  Naruto thought.

Ichigo frowned. "You brought her into this! I didn't want this for anyone! She'll get hurt! Or worse, she'll die!"

"What place do you have doing that for her?" Naruto asked. "She's just some teenager that you don't even know! She'll get in over her head like I did when I was young, and look what happened to me. I  _died!_ "

Tatsuki set her jaw and clenched her fist, the ring glinting lightly in the light of the room. "I wanted this, Ichigo. I wanted to protect Orihime and you and everyone else I know and care about. Do you know how annoying it is, to know that your loved ones are out there, risking their lives for you, and you can't do anything in return? That you can't protect them, but you feel like you owe it to them to contribute and save as many people as you can?" She crossed her arms. "I've basically been the protector of Karakura Town since you disappeared in Soul Society. Urahara has been training me with the basics of how to use the Bijuu's chakra and the simple techniques. I want to learn more and become stronger."

Naruto had heard enough to know that this was definitely a bad idea. In a blinding flash of speed, Naruto had Urahara pinned against the wall, anger radiating off of him. He pressed his forearm into the man's throat, gritting his teeth.

"Why the hell would you make her into a jinchuuriki? Do you know how much pain I've lived through, in two lifetimes, because of this burden!? Who the hell do you think you are, playing God like that?"

Ichigo stepped into his peripheral vision. "I know he's a dick sometimes, but step away from him."

Urahara raised his arms in surrender. "If it makes you feel any better, she's not  _exactly_  a jinchuuriki."

"What do you mean? Explain yourself!" Naruto could feel the room staring at him, confused about what all of this meant. Ichigo made a move for his sword, just in case of what he'd do, and Naruto rolled his eyes. None of them would ever understand the pain that the Bijuu cause wherever they go.

"All the answers to that are in those scrolls," Urahara said finally. "I wrote out how I did it in there, gave a step-by-step guide on how to do it again. All you need to know now is that the Bijuu is inside the ring, not her body, and she has complete control over when the chakra influences her body."

Naruto pressed harder before finally letting go, backing away and still very much enraged. "You can't just experiment on people like that! You did the exact same thing that Aizen indirectly caused happen to me! I don't care if she wants to use the power or not, she should have never had the opportunity in the first place!"

"Why do you care?" Tatsuki asked defensively.

"Because I've experienced firsthand what this does to people. I don't care if Urahara changed the sealing or something, you still shouldn't have to deal with the consequences!" Naruto walked toward the front door, but Tatsuki grabbed his shoulder.

He twisted around instinctively, trying to throw her to the ground by using her weight against her, but she jabbed him in the ribs hard, stunning him. "Well, at least you can handle the most basic taijutsu."

"That's karate."

"Whatever." He hurried from the room with a dash of Shunpo.

* * *

The cold was unbearable, which was unlike any desert she had ever read about before. It was eternally dark, but the light of the crescent moon was enough for the bare minimum of vision.

There was no food, no water. No sustenance. Her body had already started using her spirit energy to supplement nourishment, and she knew she was starving. If she didn't figure something out, her reiryoku would run out and she'd die.

If not for that human girl healing her, she'd be dead already. Her wound was shallow now, and it had already begun to heal itself. She was lucky.

Her senses were constantly there, hyper-aware of what was around her. This was the land of hollows, and if she wasn't careful, she'd get devoured. Every hour of walking, she'd take a few minutes to reinforce the Kido barriers she had placed on herself, as well as create more traps. She had to conserve energy, but she needed to keep herself alive.

 _This entire ordeal could have been avoided if you had simply waited,_ Momo reminded herself.  _If you had waited on others to come with you, you could have still used the spell to follow Aizen, with help involved. Supplies, food, water... All of that would be very helpful right now._

She needed to keep going. She needed to destroy Aizen for what he did. But she had no idea where she was going; she had been slowly walking toward the giant palace on the horizon, and it was still apparently on the horizon. It never got any closer, and despite her progress being slow, she knew she was still making progress. It had been days since she arrived, and the building must have been massive.

Momo was slowly starting to question her decision, her sanity, and rethink her entire life choices in the last several years. Every bad decision, every decision she had made; all of it was under scrutiny in the endless sand.

Why had she ever trusted Aizen over her boyfriend? The man was deceitful and manipulative, and other than the last few weeks, Naruto had been nothing but good to her. She literally screamed aloud, too angry to feel sad, and too sad to feel angry.

 **"Well, well, well! What do we have here?"**  shouted a menacing voice behind her. Momo twisted around, looking straight into the face of an Adjuchas-level Menos Grande.  **"A shinigami catered right to Hueco Mundo!"**

The Adjuchas was twice her height, with green reptilian skin and a white mask with purple striped designs. Its claws were incredibly long, glinting in the moonlight, and its tail ended in a drill-like spike.

Surrounding it were several smaller normal-class hollows, probably too afraid to try to usurp the authority of the Adjuchas. It was like it had its own private squad of warriors and guardians, and Momo had never been more afraid.

"Leave me alone!" She shouted, preparing to fight with what ability she had.

 **"Oh, now. Pathetic begging will get you nowhere!"** The hollow leader threw out his hand, gesturing for its army to attack for him. It screeched in an impossibly terrifying way, and Momo backed up several feet.

One hollow passed into the zone, and she snapped her fingers. Instantly, the Kido trap activated, a silver rod of lightning impaling the creature in its chest and dissipating it into spirit particles. She drew her sword and sliced into the arm of the next, cutting it in pieces. One of the six remaining hollows snapped its tail at her, and the barrier around herself stopped it in time for her to stab into its mask and purify it.

**"It seems that you have skills! But they pale in comparison to mine!"**

Another trap activated, a flame ring wrapping around the lizard-like hollow and burning it completely. She jumped into the air, swinging her sword at the Adjuchas.  **"Snap, Tobiume!"**  Explosive energy surrounded her now branched blade, and as the steel clashed against the hollow's claws, the fire exploded in the hollow's direction. The flames were powerful enough to cause the sand to turn to glass within a five-meter radius.

Momo jumped backwards again, activating another Kido trap. A line of yellow light surrounded her, halting the three small hollows trying to get revenge for her attacking the leader, and freezing them in place. She screamed again, swinging her shikai and another fireball erupted to destroy the remaining hollows.

The smoke cleared, and the Adjuchas was still standing. It started to laugh, despite the fact that it was now missing both of its claws. The only reminders that they ever existed were its scorched forearms.

 **"How pitiful!"**  Within seconds, white liquid surrounded the place where its hands were. Momo gasped at the hollow's regenerated limbs.  **"If you wanted to win, you should have destroyed me in one blow! Prepare to be devoured, shinigami!"**

It rushed her once more, and she began to chant. There was no other way to avoid it.  **"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws. Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!"**

Momo jumped backward onto the top of a dune of sand, firing the powerful spell in the hollow's direction. As it exploded, she swung her sword again.  **"Tobiume!"** The pink fireball followed the blue wave of fire, the combined power incredible.

Momo was running on fumes. She had nothing left. Her skin was pale, a cold sweat pouring down her face. Her shikai faded subconsciously, dropping from her hand. The lieutenant fell to her knees, unable to continue.

The smoke slowly started to clear, and the Adjuchas was still alive. Scorch marks covered its body, and it had somehow used its tail to defend its mask, because half its tail had been burned away. Its group was dead, and it was pissed.

The hollow moved once, and immediately, something shifted underneath them. The sand started moving, and Momo hesitated just enough to realize that she was starting to sink into it.

**"What the hell did you do?!"**

Momo couldn't focus on the hollow's anger because the sand was starting to spiral. Her explosion must have somehow created a sandpit and now they were trapped, forced to roll around the whirlpool of earth. Momo felt helpless.

The hollow raged, attempting to claw at her from his position, but they were too far apart and it was covered up to its neck. Momo tried to swim around, to keep her head afloat, but the pressure of the sand was too dense to move. She angled her head for the last possible second of air, before the sand overtook her.

* * *

Naruto sat in the middle of a park, trying to feel out the portable fake body. He had found some clothes to dress the gigai in: a really simple black t-shirt and jeans and open-toed sandals, and he had left the store with what they would cost in the cash register.

He was in deep thought, wishing that he could clear his mind of all his worries. All of his thoughts came back to Momo, and where she was and how she was doing. Aizen was probably torturing her right now, or maybe she was dying of starvation in some dungeon. Hell, she could be dead, and the thought made him so angry that it overshadowed how angry he was at Urahara.

It had been hours since he left the shop, but he still did not regret chewing him out. He refused to check the scrolls to see how the former captain did what he did to make her a jinchuuriki, or at least, to make her be able to use the Bijuu's power.

It shouldn't matter to him in the long run, should it? He should probably be grateful. If Aizen was indeed gathering the Bijuu and creating jinchuuriki to aid in the fight with Soul Society, then having one less on his side was a good thing.

Kusaritane had been silent all afternoon, and even the Kyuubi had been quiet, despite involving him most directly. He had wondered if asking either of them for advice on how to feel would be a good thing, but he would probably still hate what Urahara did for involving an innocent girl in this.

She would be targeted. If Aizen could figure out where she was, and it was only a matter of time, then he'd cut that ring right off of her finger if it meant making his side stronger. She'd fight back, no doubt. But without training, she'd be a sitting duck and Aizen wouldn't even have to lift a finger to send her to her knees.

He had tried to stomach thinking through Urahara's reasoning for doing it, but it still did not make sense. He wondered if he would ever actually understand why Urahara did it, because there seemed to always be an ulterior motive for him.

"I figured that I would find you here." Naruto turned to see Yoruichi, disguised as a cat, walking up to him. "My nose never lies."

"If you're here to try to get me to agree with him, you can forget it now."

The cat frowned. "Now why would you think I would like what he did? He has his reasons for involving Tatsuki, but I don't agree with them."

"Really?" Naruto was surprised to hear that.

"Yes. Unfortunately, taking away the powers he's given her will be difficult," Yoruichi explained.

Naruto huffed. "You got that right. It'd kill her."

The cat shook her head, licking her paw clean. Seeing her mimick feline behavior was just plain odd. "I don't think so. I know enough to know that he tried to avoid that scenario, that disadvantage. It wouldn't kill her if it was removed, but he never told me how they could be removed."

Naruto just shook his head in dismissal. "All of that is besides the point. If we took the ring off her finger, she'd be powerless."

"It's not that simple. The chakra of the Bijuu has been influencing her body long enough to start creating a chakra network for her."

He rolled his eyes, raising his shirt to show the seal of the Kyuubi on his gigai's stomach. "If she can't remove the ring, then it's no different than putting the Bijuu's chakra directly inside the person. She has to live with it now."

Yoruichi sat in silence for a long moment, her tail swaying in the wind. "Even if we could remove it from her, she would fight us tooth and nail for it. She'd lose, but she wants this. Even if it was done under Urahara's false pretenses, Tatsuki is not going to give them up."

Naruto nodded. He could tell that she was stubborn and enjoyed the power. "From what you can tell, is she any good at using it?"

"I don't know any more than you do on that front, but she'll need to be trained. She wants in on this fight; I know that much. She'll want to be at Orihime's side, at Ichigo's side, when Aizen makes his next move. If she stands any chance at helping, she'll need a teacher."

Naruto knew that was true. "You're serious, aren't you? You want me to do it?"

"I don't think there are any other options. You have firsthand experience, and you should be able to help her directly, the longer you stay in that gigai."

"What do you mean?"

"That gigai was specially crafted to implement a chakra network to the wielder. I think Kisuke tried to use it to join the shinobi once while he was traveling there, but it wouldn't work on him. He thinks it should work on you."

"Why? Because I used to live there?"

"Maybe," Yoruichi said. "He didn't share all the specifics, but he said that the Kyuubi should act as a source of yang chakra to join with your yin chakra, or reiryoku."

Naruto thought back to what he knew about the nature of chakra and how it is used in techniques. The Kyuubi's large energy source had usually made his jutsu more unstable and usually useless. He remembered something Jiraiya had once told him about how Bijuu chakra eventually adds to the physical chakra of the jinchuuriki. "So the longer I am in this thing, the better I'll be able to use my own chakra, as well as the chakra of the Kyuubi. Great."

It was like Urahara had given him a chance to relive his old life, inside a fake body. He suddenly reminded himself of Orochimaru and wanted to puke. He probably would have, if the gigai had anything in its stomach.

"Yeah. It's a lot to take in," the cat said. "Do you think Aizen is really using the Bijuu?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah. Probably. He and Urahara seem to be a lot alike."

"Are you going to do something about that?"

The blonde looked at her, raising up from his cloud gazing. "What do you suggest? I figure knowing the way that Aizen plans, he's probably got all of the available ones by now." He tried to not think about the Akatsuki, but it was difficult not to. They were the ones who kept him in captivity after all, long enough to seal him in the giant statue last.

"Not necessarily," Yoruichi explained. "You're headed to the Elemental Nations soon, right?"

Naruto nodded. "Yes. I need to look over the seal again."

"Well, do you think it would be worth it to check out all the places where you know there are Bijuu? All the villages associated with one of them anyway?"

He frowned. "No, it would take too much time. I can't leave Momo alone for that long."

The cat turned to him. "I think it would be a good idea, since you already have to go. I'll bet that if you tweaked it, you could use Kido to create a Bijuu tracking Kido. Do you really want Aizen to get more power? What if going after Momo is the perfect chance for him to take Tatsuki? Or one of the other jinchuuriki or Bijuu?"

Naruto shouted suddenly, throwing his head back on the ground and rubbing his face. What she was saying made sense. He already had to go. Maybe he could try to locate them while he was there with Kido, and if he didn't get a ping, he could return to Urahara and try to work out some way to get to Hueco Mundo. That would be awful because it would probably mean that Aizen had seven out of nine Bijuu at his disposal.

"Fine. You're right. I'll be as quick as I can," he said. "But you want me to take Tatsuki with me, don't you? She needs to have her seals analyzed too."

Yoruichi smiled. "You're smarter than you look. So you'll do it?"

"There's nobody else, is there? And besides, Tatsuki could transform tomorrow into the full Bijuu and destroy everything in her path if I don't see what the limits of that ring are."


	26. The Nature of Training

_Tatsuki's good,_ Naruto muttered. He had been watching the girl use the sparring dummy for hours, and she had great form. The girl was a brilliant fighter, one who really deserved her title as the second strongest girl in all of Japan. Her karate was excellent, and from what he could see, was sometimes better than the taijutsu forms he had encountered in the past. She would do well with a mixture of taijutsu and Hakuda.

Her own fighting style wasn't as good as Lee's or as the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist. But her own brand of jabs, kicks, and punches were excellent, and he could only imagine what they would be like with the added ability to use the Bijuu's strength.

"Are you going to let me-"

"No."

"Really? I mean, I doubt you could stop me if I really wanted to go."

"Don't test me."

"Oh, come on!" She punctuated each word with kicks and twists of her leg, an interesting maneuver that was a little bit unorthodox. "I hate having to ride on your back."

"It's not my cup of tea either, but at least we didn't have to steal a small ship from some poor fisherman. Running across the sky with Shunpo is much faster than a ship anyway, just more exhausting."

The small island where they had stopped to rest was incredibly boring. It was barely more than a sandbar with a few sparse trees and a few bushes. Naruto had asked Tatsuki to show what she knew about survival, about gathering food and supplies from the limited area, and she had surprised him by procuring a few fish and starting a fire. "I used to go camping in the mountains," she had explained.

"Any chance I could learn to run across the sky like that?"

"Probably not, and you already know how to walk on water," he answered. "You apparently can already fly too, so what's the point?"

"But you won't let me fly anyway."

"Exactly," Naruto answered, sitting down and rummaging through his pack to find the scroll. "Not until we know for sure that the Nanabi won't break free from extended use."

She cursed, slamming a fist directly at the straw dummy. She had insisted to bring it along, storing it in her own scroll she carried with her.

"What else do you store inside that scroll of yours?"

"Why would I tell you that?"

Naruto peered at her. "Okay, you've learned not to trust anyone with what you carry. That's probably a good thing. Except that I'm not your enemy, and there's no one else around, so it's pointless to hide your inventory. What do you have with you?"

She frowned and reached for her seal, opening it and making a hand seal. The kanji appeared in the center and her scroll opened. Inside were backup stocks of kunai and shuriken, as well as paper tags for paper bombs and various survival supplies, like food pills for extra chakra and an extra canteen of water from the one she wore on her back.

"That's good. You've got an extra stock of basically everything. How much do you carry on your person?"

"Half as many weapons, but only some of the other gear," she explained, showing the pouch she wore over her white pants. "This was basically all that Urahara had."

"You should double up on the weapons in that pouch of yours, or at least, get it to maximum. You never know when you're going to need shuriken, and if most of it is sealed in that scroll, how are you going to access it if you need more in the middle of the battle? Sometimes, you won't have enough time to get out that scroll."

Tatsuki nodded, but she looked uneasy. "That makes sense. Um... can you help me put all this back?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, before realizing her problem. "You got that scroll from Urahara, but he had already stored all of that inside. You don't know how to draw the seals to return them."

"No, I don't." She looked ashamed, but Naruto shook his head.

"Don't worry about it. Learning the art of fuuinjutsu is difficult, and something that I barely know myself; truth be told, I only know the mechanics. I know a lot more Kido to make up for it." He demonstrated by making a hand sign himself, causing his scroll to unravel and the kanji to appear; he wished he had better control of his chakra, but it was hard. "You have to work your chakra and know the right kind of seals in order to control what's stored inside. Look." Naruto demonstrated by making another seal and pulling a particular scroll outside in a puff of smoke, the scroll that Urahara had written himself describing the process he had used for Tatsuki's ring.

"What's Kido?" asked Tatsuki.

"The shinigami equivalent of ninjutsu and genjutsu," Naruto explained, putting it on simple terms she could understand. "From what I hear, Tessai is a Kido master, and it's one of my strengths."

"That makes a lot of sense, it just pisses me off that Tessai doesn't talk much. I don't know anything about him."

"You probably know less about Urahara, so I wouldn't worry too much. That guy is shady."

She stretched once and sat down beside him, bringing her open scroll and its contents over so he could help. They worked in silence, but Naruto could tell something was on her mind.

"Spit it out."

She chuckled nervously, before looking him in the eye. "Naruto, what's your problem with this whole situation really? Like, I really want to know."

"What do you really want to know?" he asked.

"Why do you object so much to me having the Nanabi?" she asked, a tone of force in her voice. "The longer I have it, the more of my own chakra I can use. I don't even  _want_  to use it all the time, I'm just not good enough yet to go without it."

Naruto thought of his own childhood. Of Gaara and the monster that he had become. He remembered waking up, moments before the Bijuu had been forcefully ripped from his body, and seeing the body of another jinchuuriki just lying there. He never knew the man's name, only that he had been from the Hidden Cloud. Manipulation, from the political system of his human life and from the plans of Sosuke Aizen...

"I'm sorry, but I just can't talk about it," he explained, grief and pain on his mind. "But I  _can_  talk about this."

"What?"

"You need to get better. Better at everything that you can do, without the Nanabi," explained Naruto. "Not every situation will need the Nanabi's chakra, so you shouldn't make that your go-to ability every time you fight."

He stood up and made a familiar hand sign crossing his fingers. He wasn't sure how well it would work, but it would have to.  **"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"**  An exact replica of himself appeared next to him, smirking at Tatsuki.

Naruto felt the wave of nostalgia rush over him, looking at his clone. He felt a little disheartened that he couldn't use dozens of clones at the same time, like he used to. He knew that eventually, the Kyuubi will have boosted the gigai's chakra network enough to create a large amount of yang chakra that he could use. He had barely any right now, and he was trying not to use the Kyuubi.

"Show my clone everything that Urahara taught you," Naruto stated. "It won't hold back, and neither should you. I'll have a better knowledge of where you are in your training, and how to improve you."

Tatsuki immediately dropped a smoke pellet, and for a brief few moments, the entire island was covered in it. He wondered what her game plan was, and his clone was apparently too cocky to try to hide.

The doppelganger threw up a palm in the exact right moment, catching the shuriken in mid-air, before it could hit his jugular. He threw it back where it came, and Naruto couldn't see if it hit his target.

"Why are you making this difficult for me to study you?" Naruto asked. "I can't see anything you're doing."

"Oh, shut up, it'll go away in a second!"

Instantly, his clone took advantage of her revealing where she was, running into the slowly dissipating cloud of smoke. He collided with her, delivering punches and kicks while she was disoriented. Naruto could see now, the wind having picked up the smoke and blowing it over the ocean around them.

The second that Tatsuki snapped into action was the second that Naruto realized how truly amazing a fighter she really was. She had it in her bones, and even if it was a clone she was fighting, the girl was evading and delivering counters like the best of them. She never managed to get a really good hit in on him, but when the clone suddenly jumped away and threw several kunai in her direction, it was obviously too much for her.

She managed to evade one, blocked another with a reflexive speed she shouldn't have had with the flat of her hand, but it overtook her. The four remaining kunai landed in her body in various places, and Naruto gasped.

A puff of smoke erupted from her body, a log taking its place. An unharmed Tatsuki appeared behind Naruto's clone, jumping from behind the tree and said,  **"Substitution Jutsu."** In the next instant, she tried to deliver a fist to the clone's unsuspecting back, but when the duplicate reached out to grab her wrist, his hand phased through her.  _ **Clone Jutsu**_ _,_  Naruto realized.

The kick hit Naruto's clone directly in the face, sending the boy flying into the ocean before it dissipated.

"Not bad. Not bad at all," he said. "You've got the basics of deception down, although it can always use work. Your aim is not bad, and your reflexes are above average. Hand to hand is obviously where you excel, so training your speed and the strength of your blows is the easiest way to make you better. I think we need to figure out some ninjutsu to add to your arsenal, ones that might highlight what you already know, as well as use your chakra nature."

"Really? You think I was all right?"

Naruto nodded. "Against an opponent like me, who holds back to be on your level, you did great. Those tricks you used, however, are so standard that literally every opponent will be prepared to counter them." He considered it for a moment. "Shinobi anyway. I don't know how many of those you will have to fight in your lifetime, but you have to be prepared for it nonetheless."

Tatsuki nodded, thankful for the help. "I'm glad you told it to me straight, Sensei."

Naruto frowned, the word bringing back a sudden rush of memories. "Just call me Naruto."

* * *

The first thing she felt was the rough rock sticking into her back. Her eyes opened wide, the low light from the fire in the corner. She had no idea where she was, but her first instinct was to reach for her zanpakutou. Tobiume was nowhere in sight, and she was immediately nervous and terrified.

Whatever the place was, it was some sort of cavern and there were several small tools like cups and a fire pit built in the center. She was sitting up on a pallet made of some kind of uncomfortable fir, and the opening to the room, if you could call it that, was covered by a thin hide.

No one else was there, her zanpakutou was missing, and she had no idea why she wasn't eaten. Her wounds had been bandaged, but not healed; she could feel Aizen's stab wound opening up again, after the human girl had partially healed it.

She adjusted the shirt of her shihakusho, feeling embarrassed that someone other than Naruto had seen her naked. She needed to know where she was and what the hell had happened after she disappeared into the sand.

She stood up, completely on edge, and gathered reiryoku into her palms, using a Shakkaho to light the way. She tore away at the flap of leather, immediately screaming and firing the blast on impulse. The human-sized hollow in front of her with a skull mask and a sword in hand, immediately turned away and dodged her Kido, which dissipated into the dark of the area behind it, never finding a wall like the space went on forever.

"Get back, you fool. Do you want to die?" He shoved her back inside the room, waving a hand to create an invisible barrier of camouflage. She knew it was Kido, so how was a hollow doing that?

"Who are you?"

"I'm no one. Not anymore," the creature muttered. "You can stay here until you get recovered, and then you need to be on your way."

Momo looked at him with confusion, still not sure why she wasn't trying to blast his head off. "I don't even know where I am or where my zanpakutou is, so I'm not leaving until I get some answers."

The male voice huffed. "You're in the Menos Forest, and your sword is probably back where I found you. I'd give up on trying to get that back, if I were you."

"What do you mean?" Momo hated how she knew nothing.

"I found you in the middle of a nest of Menos Grande," he explained. "I managed to get you out of there as they were trying to devour you, but I didn't notice a sword anywhere near you."

Momo inwardly cursed her bad luck. "Why would you save me if you're a hollow?"

The monster reached up to its head, showing very human hands, lifting the beaked mask off of his face to reveal a man with very dark red hair and a noble-like face. She realized then that he was a shinigami, but a shinigami that used parts of a hollow to disguise himself. His sword must have been a zanpakutou of his own. "I'm not a hollow. It's been so long since I saw another shinigami."

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," the man replied. "Did they send another group to follow a hollow through a Garganta?"

She shook her head, not sure if she should explain the situation with Aizen or if she should just explain the spell. She eventually settled for the latter.

"So you can create another Garganta to get out, right?" He looked oddly hopeful for some reason.

Momo shook her head. "No. There were still several things I needed to work out about the spell. What squad do you belong to?"

"I don't suppose it matters now, does it? I've been stuck here for so long, I don't think they'd remember me."

Momo tried to remember how to breathe. "How long?"

"Hundreds of years."

Any hope of getting out on her own was thrown out the window. She was going to commit herself to her mission of vengeance.

* * *

"Is that it?" asked Tatsuki from beside Naruto's shoulder, in between bouts of Shunpo.

"Yes. The Elemental Nations," muttered Naruto, most of the land obscured by clouds of mist.

"How big is this landmass and why have I never heard of it?" asked Tatsuki.

"It's not as big as Japan, but Aizen probably wanted it that way somehow," Naruto explained, curious as to how Aizen had managed to keep the islands hidden from the rest of the world. Was that sekkisekki mist viable to block satellite imagery from even the humans?

"Just how bad is this Aizen guy anyway?"

"I'll tell you that story later, if Urahara hasn't cleared you on all the details," he muttered, immediately using Shunpo once more and knocking the breath out of Tatsuki. The moment that he felt her suddenly be yanked from him, he twisted around in time to see her begin to fall. "Tatsuki!"

The girl grinned while falling, before suddenly sprouting orange wings from her back and stopping her descent by flapping them so fast that they nearly disappeared, like a hummingbird. "Just kidding."

Naruto stopped her suddenly, holding onto her and forcing her to the ground. They landed somewhere near the Land of Fire's coast, a little bit inland. "How many times do I have to tell you to stop using the Nanabi's chakra?"

"C'mon, I've got control over at least two of the tails!" Tatsuki said, rising up and hovering slightly. Her eyes glowed slightly with orange light. "They give me the wings and the enhanced vision and the thicker skin. Urahara had me devote all of my time on this."

Naruto recalled her strengths and weaknesses. Her taijutsu was amazing, but could still use some work learning to adapt to new styles and combining her yin chakra to it in order to increase her ability to fight against spiritual enemies, especially those with swords like shinigami. Her ninjutsu were Academy-level, at best, and Naruto had not had enough time to look through the scrolls Urahara had collected to find jutsu to teach her; she knew the Clone Jutsu and the Substitution Jutsu, and that was it. All he knew, other than the Shadow Clone Jutsu, was the Rasengan, and it didn't feel like a fit for her. Her genjutsu was almost as bad as his was when he was alive.

"Look, I know you're just playing around, but stop. Drop the beast's chakra until we get to where we're going and we can have it analyzed. We're not far from where we need to be anyway," he ordered. She dropped to the ground, putting away her wings, and jumped back onto Naruto's back.

"Fine. I just wanted to have some fun," she said. "You're right though. I should listen to you."

Naruto disappeared in another dash of Shunpo, touching the air like there were ready-made platforms, leaping again and again with increased speed. Tatsuki looked a little bit upset when they finally entered the closed-off area where Mount Myoboku lay.

Naruto saw the wonder in her eyes at the very natural place, obscured from any form of industrial invasion. It was more connected to nature than any wildlife park forest she had ever been to. The waterfall made of toad oil rushed through the area, pooling near the Chief Toad's place.

"What is this place?"

"Welcome to Mount Myoboku, home of the toad summons," Naruto explained. "Back when I was alive, I had a contract with them to use the Summoning Jutsu, and they helped me fight tough enemies all the time."

"Ooh, can I do that!?"

Naruto was unsure if that would be a good idea or not, even if she had the right affinity for it. He made a point to ask the Chief later. "I honestly don't know."

When the ten-foot-tall toad suddenly appeared from behind a large entrance leading into their compound, Tatsuki backed away very slowly. "I can see why these guys could help you in battle."

 **"Heck yeah we can,"**  Gamakichi replied, before leaning into Naruto's shoulder.  **"Kid, who's the human?"**

Naruto put a hand on her back, gesturing for her to go inside. "Gamakichi, this is Tatsuki Arisawa. Tatsuki, meet Gamakichi, my favorite of the toads."

 **"Oh, don't go playing favorites, Naruto! Gamatatsu will cry, and I know you don't want that. Last time that happened, he nearly flooded a small meadow."**  They entered the compound, Gamakichi hopping down the way. Tatsuki seemed to be more uncertain of him every single move he made.  **"So seriously though, why did you bring her here?"**

Naruto pointed to the ring on her finger, and Tatsuki moved her hand behind her back, almost defensively. She was probably afraid that the toads were going to take it away from her somehow. "It's a long story that I'll get into with the Chief, but she's the jinchuuriki of the Nanabi."

 **"Ooh, really? The Nanabi!"**  Gamakichi's tongue moved slightly, hanging out of its mouth, and the girl moved away a single step.

"The Nanabi is not some fly you can snatch up, you dumb toad," Naruto said, smiling.

The orange and blue creature smiled.  **"Yeah, yeah, I know. Come on, the Chief will want to see you. I take it you need to check her seals?"**

"Both mine and hers, actually. I've used the fox quite a bit more than I usually do lately, and it's starting to cause me to feel disconnected."

Tatsuki looked at him. "Disconnected? What do you mean by that?"

Naruto promised to explain it to her later, as they entered Gamabunta's chamber, which was, of course, an even more impressive chamber cut into the mountain. Tatsuki was overwhelmed by how large the Chief was, and she seemed more and more afraid of this whole situation the longer she stayed.

 **"Ah, Naruto. You're back,"**  the Chief said, puffing on his pipe.  **"And with an outsider."**

"I know it's unorthodox to bring her with me, but the situation calls for it," explained Naruto.

 **"Tatsuki here is the jinchuuriki of the Nanabi, Dad,"**  Gamakichi answered.

The toad moved to inspect her closer, raising an eye in surprise.  **"Really? And why did you bring someone from the Hidden Waterfall Village here?"**  He looked at Naruto as in accusation.

"But I'm not from the Hidden Waterfall Village, sir. I don't even know where that is."

Naruto moved forward to explain. "Tatsuki is actually from across the ocean, a place called Japan, hundreds of miles away. There's a man there, a shinigami known as Kisuke Urahara, who apparently found this place several decades ago and took the Nanabi and sealed it inside that ring. He gave the ring to her, and used a combination of Kido and fuuinjutsu to analyze it."

Tatsuki raised her hand so the toad could look at it more fully. Gamakichi investigated it, grabbing her with slightly clammy hands and she didn't like the feeling of that one bit.  **"This is an Akatsuki ring, Dad! Don't tell me this shinigami associated with those guys."**

Naruto did a double-take, suddenly realizing where he had seen the ring before. A red stone and silver band, with the kanji for "red" written on the ring. The ring had once belonged to Itachi Uchiha, and the former lieutenant of Squad Thirteen wanted to throw the ring into a volcano.

"No, there's no way that he knew them," explained Naruto, not entirely sure if he believed that statement. "And this ring has no relation to Itachi Uchiha now, either."

Tatsuki looked at him quizzically, but that was a much larger story than the one he wanted to tell right now.

 **"Okay. We'll look it over. We'll do you first, considering your odd case,"** Gamabunta explained, gesturing to Naruto to follow him into the next chamber, where the Great Toad Sage was waiting.

"Stay here," he rummaged through his pack, pulling out the slip of paper. "Channel chakra into this slip of paper. It'll tell you what your chakra nature is, and I'll know what kind of jutsu to try to teach you."

She nodded, taking it and trying to muster up her chakra, watching the lieutenant disappear through the door. She focused on the pit of her stomach, the source of her own individual chakra, and caused it to burst into the paper.

When the paper suddenly crumbled away like it turned into dust, she stared at it in confusion.

**"So you have an Earth Chakra Nature, huh? That could lead to some cool jutsu!"**

"Like what?"

 **"You'll see. I'm sure Naruto knows a few he can teach you."**  The toad seemed unsure of that actually.  **"If he doesn't, one of us can try to teach you something."**

She seemed to peer right through his uncertainty. "You don't know if he knows any Earth-Style Ninjutsu, do you?"

The toad smiled awkwardly, rubbing the back of its head.  **"Um... no. I don't."**

"Great. Naruto's a wonderful teacher." She was really confused though, because she didn't know how Earth-Style Jutsu were supposed to help her fight in the air with the beetle's chakra. Then again, learning to use her chakra affinity might help her figure out how to fight without the beetle's help, which is what Naruto wanted to help her do all along anyway.

* * *

"So this is the Hidden Cloud Village," the man said, flashing into existence. He made a mental note of its location on the map, and its coordination with their readings. "This is where you grew up, isn't it, Samui?"

The blonde nodded. "Yeah, Shikamaru. I just wish I remembered it."

"Let's keep focused on the goal here," Tenten said to the two of them. She looked incredibly bored, not even winded after their use of Shunpo from the mainland. "We're supposed to take some data and get out of here."

"Tenten, you know it's not going to be that easy or that quick. We'll have to take samples of the atmosphere at all of our points of interest, in order to figure out how much spiritual activity is going on inside the area," explained Shikamaru.

"If we can map it out, Tenten, the SRDI can create better sensors able to track even through the mist. We can get the Elemental Nations better under the control of the Seireitei," Samui explained. "Like creating a cool benchmark, you know?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "Just because I'm in the stereotypically least intelligent squad doesn't mean I'm an idiot." She peered at the list. "I just wish there were so many of these points of interest."

Samui just ignored the complaining. "Can you guys handle this? I want to take a peek around the area, go exploring."

Shikamaru seemed to understand, nodding.

She headed down the cliff, heading toward the village which had the general appearance of hovering over the ground below, sitting on the peak of mountains and linking bridges and places together. Clouds flowed readily from place to place, occasionally fogging the windows of the highest buildings.

From everything she knew, it actually surprised her that the village was still standing, and actually looked to be thriving. Merchants and civilians went about their business, a mixture of all different kinds of people. The military units were shinobi, wearing the familiar headbands with the insignia for the Cloud. It was the first time that she had ever seen it, and Samui wished that it would jog her memory so she could remember where she came from.

She wondered who the men wearing full body armor were, with different symbols and all carrying swords. It made no sense to her because she couldn't place them, based on anything Naruto had ever told her.

She entered her portable gigai, already blending into the area with clothes that matched. A dark blue shirt, a mid-thigh-length black skirt, with a black belt tying them together. She decided to interact with the locals, maybe visit the areas that she could.

No one seemed to wonder about her as she walked, the spitting image of a shinobi who had died so long ago in the war. The Hidden Cloud would not remember; too many generations had passed.

She found a bar, hoping to listen to the locals and just absorb the knowledge of those around them. She ordered a glass of sake to enjoy while she listened quietly, and the barkeep did not react at all to her.

"Rumor is that Jin is planning an uprising," someone whispered to her direct right. A young man in his mid-twenties, with dark skin and white hair. He didn't seem to be a shinobi, and neither was the red-headed woman he was talking to.

"Think she'll pull it through?"

"I don't know. Others have tried and failed."

"Well, it's going to put pressure on us from outside our borders," added the woman. "An uprising just makes us a bigger target."

"From who? Chances are, we'll see 'em all coming from miles away. We don't have any local threats, and we have the home field advantage."

Samui looked over at them. "Who's this Jin person you're talking about?"

"Everybody knows who Jin is. The daughter of the former Raikage!" the woman declared.

The man suddenly looked at Samui with a fury in his eyes. "You're one of them, aren't you!? You're a spy from Genisuke!"

Within seconds, the man reached into his sleeve a pulled out a knife, jabbing at her, Samui jumped over his stab, landing on the man's arm and pinning it to the stool, before kicking outward at the man's face, breaking his nose.

The entire bar was suddenly on her, and she had to dodge several knives and various weapons, completely confused as to why this was happening. She had no idea of any information, and she hadn't even gotten her sake before getting into a bar brawl.

She jabbed a fist into the man barring her from reaching the door, rushing out and down the road bridge connecting that to a plateau nearby that held the merchants' area. The bar followed her, trying to get her attention, when someone suddenly appeared to stop them, a woman with dark skin and red hair, wearing the outfit of a Cloud shinobi and holding her short sword in one hand. Her sleeveless uniform showed the black flame tattoo on her left shoulder. "Why are you pursuing this woman?"

"She's a spy for them!"

The woman turned and looked at Samui. "What business would they have trying to spy on you in the middle of a bar? You know nothing."

"We know of your plans, Jin! We know what you're going to do, and we support you for it!"

The woman rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to do anything but take this woman home and make sure she's okay."

Eventually, the mob left and Samui turned to the mysterious Jin, whomever she was. "Thank you."

"No problem, Samui. Now, I think we have a lot of talking to do, because you shouldn't be standing here right now." Jin led a bewildered Samui down the bridge toward her home. "I'm Karui's daughter by the way."

* * *

Naruto hated how much the resealing process hurt, but he could feel himself more connected. The dull pain in the back of his mind, a small thing that he had gotten used to a long time ago, was gone for now. Until he started using the Kyuubi's chakra again while outside of a gigai. Sakura had explained it once that it was like the spiritons holding his body together were getting clogged with extra charges, making him unstable with prolonged use. He had to be careful, or the worst would happen.

"I have an Earth Chakra Nature!" Tatsuki said, her face bright. Naruto, on the other hand, was a little bit more hesitant. He didn't know any Earth-Style Ninjutsu to add to her arsenal. Maybe the scrolls had something.

"Awesome. Now, come with me and we'll get your ring checked out."

She and Gamakichi followed him back into the Great Toad Sage's chambers, where he sat on a chair and never moved. The toad had a charm on its necklace with the kanji for oil. Naruto knew he looked old as all get out.

"Great Sage, this is Tatsuki Arisawa, the jinchuuriki of the Nanabi."

 **"Let me see the ring, girl,"**  the Sage said.

"I can't take it off, sir." Naruto peered at the ring, remembering Urahara's plight all over again.

The Sage regarded her for a moment, as still as can be. After a long moment, he gestured for her to come closer. "Fine. Bring it here, so I can see it, child."

Naruto helped Tatsuki onto the toad's armrest, and she held up her hand. "There are several Kido mixed into the ring," Naruto explained, before showing him the scroll detailing the procedure.

Naruto had memorized the process by this point, although some of the details were uncertain. Like, for example, it wasn't described how Urahara came upon the Nanabi or whether he somehow stole it from a jinchuuriki. But he was very clear.

He used a combination of Bakudo, some of the strongest Bakudo there are, and bound the creature to the inside of the jewel, using a Sealing Jutsu formula as a basis. Due to it being trapped inside the jewel of the ring, he created a pathway for the ring to connect to Tatsuki's mindscape, where the zanpakutou would reside if she were a shinigami. Due to that mental connection, her body ushered in a spiritual one, eventually adapting to the added chakra and creating a chakra network where she should not have had one. It happened gradually, over a span of several days, where her tenketsu were becoming strengthened by the Nanabi. Now she has access to a moderate amount of chakra, and it would only get larger the longer that she wore the ring.

 **"Interesting,"**  the Sage muttered.  **"It seems very thorough. You mentioned that it wouldn't kill her to remove it?"**

Naruto shook his head. "I don't think so. The Bijuu is latched more onto the ring than her body, and because she consents to using its power, her body has a connection to the ring. I think it might be impossible to remove the Kido however, because the Nanabi."

"Does that mean that if I wanted to get rid of it, the Nanabi would lose its connection to me?"

"Maybe," Naruto explained. "But I don't know what kind of downside that would have to your chakra network."

**"Because she is an outsider to the Elemental Nations, her body lacks a natural flow of chakra. If she were to give up the ring, her power would be unstable, much like your own, Naruto. I do not know, nor can I predict, what sort of effect this would have on your body."**

Tatsuki looked like she was upset to hear the news, but Naruto thought of something that could cheer her up. "So give her the verdict, Sage. How often can she use the Nanabi's chakra?"

The toad thought for a long time before finally croaking before speaking. The sound was so startling that it broke Tatsuki's concentration **. "She should not use it often. In small, insignificant bursts, the power does not leave a lasting effect, but the chakra is damaging to your body when used in excess. Child, you must realize that the chakra is not a toy and has very dangerous side effects. If you're going to use it, use it sparingly. If you are not careful, the Nanabi will break free of its prison and kill you instantly."**

Tatsuki took a deep breath, before letting it exhale. "Awesome. So I have this power, this great energy ready for me, and I can't even use it to help my friends."

Naruto looked at her directly. "Tatsuki, you need to have discipline. Restraint. I'm going to use this trip to teach you everything that I can, so that hopefully, you won't have to resort to its power to keep Ichigo and Orihime safe."

"Does this include Earth-Style Ninjutsu?"

Naruto laughed. "Maybe. But you need to learn to achieve nature transformation first. C'mon, let's get out of the Sage's way."

**"You are never in my way, Naruto. It's always a pleasure to see the Child of Prophecy. You just need to stop dropping in whenever you feel like it."**

* * *

The photograph was a perfect, younger image of herself. She was actually surprised that Jin had been able to recognize her, because she felt like a completely different person than the one standing next to her teammates, fresh out of their Academy graduation to genin.

A young blond girl stood next to a girl who looked a lot like Jin and a boy with white hair and dark skin. All three carried swords, each with different lengths, and their master was a dark skinned man with sunglasses and a killer smile.

"You remember any of it?" asked Jin.

Samui shook her head, feeling solemn. "No. I don't."

"Well, it's no big deal. You haven't told me anything though, about how you're here again. Please don't tell me you've been brought back to life by Kabuto, because my mother told me way too many nasty stories about that."

Samui shook her head. "No, it's nothing like that. I'm honestly not supposed to tell you, but I figure that I'll do it anyway." She launched into an entire explanation of shinigami and the land of the dead, just beyond the eyes of normal people.

"Hmmm. So the Hyuuga Clan really _can_  see the dead with their advanced Byakugan, huh?"

Samui shrugged, already preparing for the end of the conversation. She knew what she needed to do, but it would hurt her. She felt connected to her past self, connected to her family and friends. Everyone that she once knew, and even if she can't remember, she still felt close to them.

"Anyway, I'll give it to you bluntly. Your brother Atsui died in the war, shortly before you. You don't remember how you died." Samui shook her head. "You and Omoi took a hit for the Raikage, when Madara started to fight the Five Kage. Your team had already lost your sensei, Bee, to the Akatsuki, so you felt like defending the Raikage was the right thing to do. You actually died, and Omoi barely survived."

Samui shook her head, surprised to hear it all finally. She felt good about how she went out, but she wished that she had some kind of emotional impact to go along with it. The memories should have been her link to that, but it didn't work for her. "Wow. What happened next?"

"Some of the details are fuzzy, but the Akatsuki and Madara were defeated, despite the fact that they had the Juubi," explained Jin, looking a little confused himself. "The Raikage eventually passed away due to old age, and my mother was chosen to take over. Even she doesn't know all the details, or at least, she never shared them with me."

"So where is she now?" asked Samui. "Or is someone else Raikage?"

Jin smiled to appease her. "Let's just say the political situation in the Land of Lightning is complicated."

* * *

Tatsuki continued to go through taijutsu forms, following some of the instructions that Naruto gave her earlier, about keeping her elbows in and conserving the chakra she could mix into her punches and kicks to make them more effective. Tatsuki wondered what it would take to get to train with Sakura for a bit, considering their styles of hand-to-hand combat were similar. She had never met human-form Yoruichi, but that would be even better than Chad and Orihime's previous teacher.

"You need to add more to your blows," he explained, holding out his fist and showing her how to materialize chakra around her fist. She could feel the power exuding from them, but could not see it. "More raw power, but with more finesse. Control it in limited bursts, and time those bursts to your fists."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, trying once more to isolate the yin chakra and add it to her attack. Naruto had used Kido to create a strong barrier, relative to her strength level, and she was supposed to destroy it with her yin chakra. "I know, without actually touching the barrier itself."

Gamakichi, and a yellow toad named Gamatatsu had been watching for the last few minutes while he worked through exercises with them.  **"When is she going to get to the fun part where we get to teach her a new ninjutsu?"** asked the far too young sounding yellow toad.

Naruto laughed. "I swear, you're more impatient that she is, and she's the one training."

Tatsuki was starting to get bored of it, but she knew why Naruto had tried to teach her to do it this way. In order to learn an elemental ninjutsu, you needed to be able to change chakra to the correct nature for the technique. Tatsuki had already been practicing with Tessai and Urahara on how to access the spiritual half of her chakra (or reiryoku, as they called it), in order to use attacks that can hit spirits. Naruto was having her adapt that yin chakra control she had already begun to learn, and get the basics down before going into Earth-Style Ninjutsu training with Earth Nature Chakra.

Tatsuki pulled on the spirit energy within herself, trying to gather it around her fist in a semi-potent force. She could feel its intensity, and she wondered if it would work this time. She lunged forward, aiming a powerful fist directly at the orange barrier.

Just at the last second, the surface began to crack and she pulled her punch, before launching into a seamless and spiritually-enhanced kick that destroyed the target completely.

"You did well," Naruto said. "It only took you thirteen tries."

"Was that sarcasm?"

"I'll neither confirm nor deny that statement." Naruto clapped his hands, looking through the jutsu scroll. It was such a simple jutsu that it would be very easy to teach, and then from that point onward, it would be much easier to adapt more to her arsenal from that ninjutsu. "All right, this one is something that my old teacher used quite frequently, and while it might seem like a very dumb strategy, it works nearly as often as the Substitution Jutsu."

"Really?" asked Tatsuki, taking a deep breath and wiping the sweat off of her brow. "Is it some kind of super secret earthquake move that makes it easier to break the opponent's kneecaps?"

He stared at her for a moment, before shrugging. "Not quite. It's called  **Earth-Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu."**  The scroll made it sound very easy, but he really wasn't sure how long it would take Tatsuki to manage it. She did not have a huge amount of chakra; she actually had more than he did, at least of her own chakra, but he was sure the Kyuubi's chakra trickling effect was much larger than the Nanabi's.

"Oh. What does it do?" Naruto showed her the diagram, and she sighed. "You're going to give me that jutsu? How is this supposed to help?"

Naruto peered at her. "There you go again. Tatsuki, have I ever given you a reason to make you think I'd lie to you?"

"No, but I haven't known you for much more than twelve hours, truthfully. I only met you yesterday."

He actually turned to smile at her, startling her a bit. "Well done. You should never trust people you barely know. You'll know it in your gut if it's okay to trust that person, but even then, you should feel careful around everyone. You don't know who's stuffing the wallet next to you, and if you aren't careful, you'll get someone who's got you on their list."

"Isn't everyone on Aizen's list?" asked Tatsuki.

Naruto had to concede her point. While they didn't know what his real intentions are, whatever he was planning was big. The idea of blurring the lines between hollow and shinigami was terrifying, and he supposedly had all the means and methods to do exactly that, now that the Hogyoku is in his possession. Naruto could feel in his gut that Aizen's experiments with hollowfication would affect everyone in every dimension.

"Yeah, most likely," Naruto agreed. "If we're lucky, he doesn't know about you specifically yet. He might not see you coming." He clapped his hands, breaking her out of her thoughts. "All right, let's get working on this. First thing you want to do is learn to channel your earth chakra, and then burst that chakra to the ground with your hand first, because it will be easiest."

Tatsuki nodded in understanding, channeling her chakra and slamming her hand on the ground. Nothing happened, but she looked up in surprise. "I think I made the earth shake a little!"

Naruto shook his head. "No, you did not." She continued to try to transform her chakra's nature, but she was becoming more and more agitated. He pulled the scroll he had on the Earth Chakra Nature, trying to see if there was something that could help her learn faster.

"Oh, try to imagine your chakra smashing together," Naruto said, showing her the passage in the scroll. "Like two opposing forces colliding to produce dust."

Tatsuki seemed to run with the advice, trying to do just that. Naruto stared at the description, realizing that these two forces must be the physical and spiritual energy mixing to produce a chakra nature. He had already tested his own chakra nature, with the little bit of chakra that he had now in the gigai, and he apparently had a Wind Chakra Nature. He made a point to look at the scrolls to see what he could do with it.

It seemed to be hours later, with a lot of work and advice and redirection, before Tatsuki finally started to produce results. The ground underneath them both seemed to shake, just a for a fraction of a second, but it was a very lukewarm result.

"This is taking forever! This was nearly as bad as that summer assignment in Miss Ochi's class!" she muttered, trying once more to both channel her chakra and apply it to the ground.

Naruto could tell that the sun was starting to wind down, and he was glad that the toads had already given them the okay to stay the night. The very next day, they were leaving to head to Konoha, and he had hoped to make a dent in Tatsuki's training.

He muttered, thinking through ways to speed things up. "This probably won't even work. It normally takes people weeks to learn jutsu, especially when you don't have the ability to perform the nature of the jutsu yet. You have an affinity for it, but that doesn't mean it will come easy."

"I'll get it, Naruto, I promise."

She was eager and had the right attitude, as well as the diligence and work ethic necessary. But this seemed an insurmountable task, one that he really couldn't figure out how to accomplish. The basics wouldn't cut it, and maybe it wasn't the right time to try teaching her her chakra nature anyway. Aizen could move at any moment, and all she knew were Academy-level ninjutsu and the ability to dispel genjutsu. Her taijutsu, even if it was really karate, was top-knotch, but it wouldn't help against a sword release like a shikai if she didn't prepare. He needed help on how to teach her.

"Keep trying. I'll work something out tonight. Let's go back inside for now, Gamakichi made pork ramen."

"Oh, I hate ram-"

"If you finish that sentence, you'll never leave this field."

Tatsuki stared at him, believing him to be dead serious, before he cocked a sly grin.


	27. Invisible Hand

"What happened to this place?"

Naruto could not help but frown every time that he set eyes on his former home. It should be something that reminded him of all the good that he had contributed to the world. It should be a bustling hub full of vibrant and varied peoples, all bearing the near religious Will of Fire.

Instead, it was just gone. Decades of war had not been kind to it, or any attempt at reviving the place. Naruto wondered what it would take to bring it back to its former glory.

"Too many enemies," Naruto explained finally, standing on the air with Tatsuki on his back. "It couldn't hold up."

She was holding a stone, practicing her nature transformation. She had made progress over the last few hours, slowly turning large rocks into smaller pebbles, eroding the surface bit by bit with her chakra alone. When she finally managed to do it, she nearly fell from his shoulders while shouting out.

"I've done it!" She said, the rock suddenly turning into dust under her own power. She started yelling at the top of her lungs, just in excitement, and Naruto cut her off very quickly.

"Shut up, or they'll hear you." Naruto gestured to the compound a few miles away from the village. It was there that the Hyuuga-Sarutobi and a few other clans lived, too proud of their shinobi heritage to let it go completely. Naruto wished that he had left on better circumstances, but he had no choice.

"What do you mean?" Tatsuki asked, her elation bursting like a balloon. "Why did you want to come to the Hidden Leaf in the first place?"

Naruto sighed, dropping to the ground in one swift motion and dropping her near the former village's gate. "It's complicated. The last time I was here, I was coerced into doing something that I regret." He thought of the Kyuubi and the Sealing Urn that it had been sealed in, and Ganryu's plan to steal it. "I would like to make it up to the people who live in that compound, but I want to visit this place as well."

She nodded. "Okay, boss. Where do we go from here?"

"You are going to follow me to a place where you'll be safe, and then and I'm going to cloak you in Kido," explained Naruto, giving her a look that said not to question him. She raised her arms in surrender.

"It's complicated, I got it. Are you  _that_  worried we'll be in danger?"

He honestly wasn't sure. He couldn't expect how the shinobi would react to someone in the village that shouldn't be there, and he definitely couldn't expect how they would react to see him there. He was on their list, he could almost feel it.

"I don't know, but I'm not taking any chances. There aren't many remnants of the Hidden Leaf Village, but that doesn't mean they aren't strong. We're outsiders here." He clapped a hand on her shoulder and looked her dead in the eyes. "Tatsuki, they can see you coming. I can't be one hundred percent sure that cloaking Kido will work."

"Why can't I just use the Transformation Jutsu to look like someone else?"

"It doesn't matter if you look like someone else," Naruto explained. "You're still someone who shouldn't be anywhere near the village. One of the clans that live near here have special eyes called the Byakugan, and it gives them the ability to see in three hundred sixty degrees over great distances, even through objects. These guys are powerful, probably the best sensor type shinobi in the entire Elemental Nations. They can see through the Transformation Jutsu anyway."

Naruto could tell that she didn't know how to process that information, but he had to explain it to her more in depth later. Right now, he needed to drop her off and then cloak her from detection, so she could train in peace while he did what he needed to do.

The moment that the familiar training ground appeared, he almost wanted to choke up. This was where Team Seven performed the bell test with Kakashi. It was in an odd place that was relatively untouched by the devastation of war, but there were signs that it was improving. Tiny sprouts were growing on once-scorched fields, pioneer species already starting to move into the village and take over. Naruto saw that as a kind of good sign, one of rebirth, that some life could come from so much death.

"All right, you stay here while I go. Don't leave the area, and keep working on what the toads tried to help you learn. Don't overexert yourself, and seriously, Tatsuki, don't leave the area," he explained, holding up a hand **. "Noren Mekuri!"** The kido extended from his palm, creating a pocket of space around Tatsuki that was invisible to the naked eye. It was the size of a large clearing, and chances are, it would be impossible to see. Naruto had to hope that the Hyuuga wouldn't be able to see it either, as some kind of distortion or otherwise, even if it was a spiritual barrier. The rainbow-like wall flickered in the sunlight before solidifying into an illusion.

Naruto closed the barrier and blew up his gigai, entering it quickly and disappearing from the area. He had to hope that she would be okay.

* * *

Momo wished that she knew more about the man she was staying with. All she knew was his name: Ashido Kano. She had no idea who he was or what his story was. All she knew was that he was a shinigami who had become stuck here for literally hundreds of years, fighting hollows like some kind of eternal revenge mission.

She wondered if she would be stuck in Hueco Mundo for hundreds of years, searching for Aizen and trying to kill him for what he did to her and to Naruto. Surely she could hitch a ride on a Garganta from some unsuspecting hollow, somewhere down the line. She needed to develop the other half of the spell to turn the Kido spell into a roundtrip ticket, and fast.

The man had fed her and taken care of her wounds to the best of his ability, and she was able to use the best of her medical training to make up for it. She just hated feeling so alone in the room with someone who had saved her life.

She didn't have her squad. She didn't have Naruto. She didn't have her zanpakutou, as annoying as Tobiume's personality could be sometimes. She wished that she knew what to do, but her first priority should be to get her zanpakutou back.

Ashido was in the corner, obviously bored and staring outside the makeshift door of the odd tree he had carved with Kido, apparently. His base of operations in the Menos Forest was small and unsuspecting, and a layer of small Kido prevented the light from the fire inside the tree from reaching into the darkness just outside.

"Why are you doing this?" she finally asked, to break the silence. Her soup was almost untouched, but she really did not know what that soup was made of. It was not a good flavor. "Why save me? Why protect me like this?"

Ashido looked up after a long and reflective moment. "I saw you were in trouble. You had somehow destroyed the ceiling and fell down here. I sensed you, rushed in and found you, and saved you from the nest of Menos."

"Are you sure that my sword is somewhere near that place? I remember having it with me when I fell."

He shook his head. "I don't know, honestly, but it probably is. If one of them did not grab it first."

"Let's go get it," she said, already feeling confident that she had a goal in mind. He looked her with derision.

"No. I can take you there, but we need to wait it out."

"What do you mean? Wait what out?"

Ashido burst into laughter, and Momo had to admit that it was a nice laugh. She'd give just about anything to have Naruto there, laughing at one of his own terrible jokes. "You shinigami don't know anything these days, do you?"

"We haven't fought against them alone for a few hundred years," she countered. "You're bound to know more than we do."

He set his jaw, before taking a deep breath. "Hollows migrate, especially Gillian. They are constantly searching for their next meal, and that's the only thing that Gillian think about. That nest will move along within a couple of days, and I can help you get it back."

"What if it doesn't? Are they that predictable?"

Ashido smiled. "Well, they aren't predictable at all. But they rarely stay in one place for that long. If your sword is still there, it will be safe to get back soon."

Momo frowned, worried that she shouldn't trust anyone around, even Kano. The man had saved her life, yes, but what if it had been for an ulterior motive?  _How well can you really trust anyone?_ She would feel so much better if she had her zanpakutou with her.

She did another round of healing Kido on herself, bathing the room in slightly green light. The small amount of pain from Aizen's stab wound was slowly receding, and it made her angrier the more she thought about it.

"I would like to ask you a question," Ashido said finally, looking up from cleaning his zanpakutou. "Why are you in Hueco Mundo?"

Momo considered trying to explain it to him, but something hitched in her throat.  _What if he works for Aizen? What if Kano is one of Aizen's spies somehow?_  She looked at the bandages covering her body, remembered her empty stomach.

She took another bite from the soup, wishing that it tasted better than it did, before clearing her throat. "There's a man I have to kill."

"A man? Another shinigami in Hueco Mundo?" Kano thought for a moment, before adding, "His name is Aizen, isn't it?"

She nearly jumped up upon hearing the name. Kano knew Aizen... She kept her palm at the ready to blast him with Kido and hurry outside, just in case. "How do you know that name?"

Kano swallowed. "I have heard hollows mention that man's name for decades. I've never been able to figure out much about him, only that he's supposedly this wandering shinigami who seeks out strong hollows. Every few months or so, I hear a hollow down here mention that they are trying to make themselves look good so they can get into Las Noches. Right before I kill them."

"He's building an army," Momo suddenly realized. "He's going to attack the Soul Society with an army of hollows."

Kano's eyes widened. "That makes sense, but why would he betray the Soul Society? Who is this man?"

Momo really couldn't think about anything else. "What is Las Noches?"

"It's a giant palace on the desert surface," explained Kano. "You probably didn't see it while you were aboveground, or you'd know what I'm talking about."

"Can you take me there?"

The moment that Kano began to hesitate, Momo stood up, ending her healing spell. She prepared to gather whatever she could, but Kano stood and touched her shoulder to get her to stop.

"Momo, if you go to Las Noches, you'll die. The hollow in charge there is a Vasto Lorde named Baraggan," explained Ashido. "I've never personally met him, but the Adjuchas in the Forest of Menos are terrified of his power and his army."

Momo looked outside the makeshift door, into the darkness beyond that. "So are Baraggan and Aizen working together?"

Ashido shook his head. "No, that's impossible. Baraggan hates shinigami. There's no way he would ever align himself with Aizen, even if Aizen was laying the Soul Society on a silver platter in front of him."

Momo was confused, and maybe Ashido didn't have all the details. If this Baraggan was a Vasto Lorde-level Menos Grande, he had no reason to fear Aizen. So how were hollows that were trying to prove their strength going to join Aizen by heading to Baraggan's palace? Unless Aizen was somehow stronger than Baraggan?

She shuddered at the thought and realized, right then, that she needed to become stronger. She knew that Aizen was powerful, but was it possible he was  _that_  powerful, to be stronger than a Vasto Lorde? First step to that was getting her sword back.

* * *

Tenten was starting to get incredibly bored, but nothing made her more bored than knowing that she was stuck with a lazy bum like Shikamaru, who was taking his sweet time analyzing the shrine, which was supposed to be the center of spiritual activity in this area.

The shrine was made of ancient wood, weathered from exposure to the natural elements against the side of the mountain, obscured slightly by a layer of clouds. The kanji character for lightning was scrawled across its front surface, and there was a faint scent of brimstone around it. Tenten did not think it was that impressive.

"Are you not done yet?" she finally asked. "This is getting boring."

"Captain Zaraki's patience has rubbed off on you."

She rolled her eyes. "Sarcasm aside, you've got too much of Captain Kyoraku in you, Shikamaru. He's the laziest, least motivated guy in all of the Soul Society."

"Yeah, probably. Nanao hates us," he muttered under his breath, taking another sample and sealing it inside the beaker. He was using a special instrument to highlight the more dense components of the atmosphere, of a more spiritual basis, and it was proving very helpful. They were still in the Land of Lightning, but there were several other places they needed to check.

"Samui's been gone for almost a whole day," she finally said. "Where is she?"

Shikamaru looked back at her. "She checked in a few hours ago, said she was in the Hidden Cloud Village and had some interesting news to tell us when she finally gets to us."

"Talking about me, are you?" They both turned to see the blonde shinigami return, back in spiritual form. "I'm back."

"Nice to see you again," Shikamaru said lightly. "Did you learn anything about the area while you were there? Maybe regain some memories?"

Samui shook her head. "No memories, but I did learn some interesting things. I met Jin, who was my former teammate's daughter. She told me some interesting family history, and about what happened after I died in the war."

Shikamaru smiled. "That's good. What's the Land of Lightning like now?"

"It's one of the three major villages left," Samui said. "The Elemental Nations have been at war with the Land of Iron for the past few years, but the war finally ended a year ago. The Hidden Cloud Village only survived because Karui stepped down as Raikage and relinquished control to the samurai. She died shortly after, and no one in the village is happy about them being in charge."

Tenten was surprised. "So this Karui gave up like that? Doesn't sound like a good leader."

"But if she hadn't, the Land of Iron probably would have destroyed them. She probably did what was right."

"I wouldn't worry about that very much, you guys," Nara began. "I mean, it's great to know the history of the place, but is this information supposed to help us figure out a connection to the spiritual activity around here?"

Samui frowned at his cold nature. "Lord Genisuke has a special eye that allows him to see spirits. Is there a chance that's related?"

"Too coincidental for it to not be related," Tenten remarked. "Didn't Naruto mention something about that once?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Yes. I think this means he has the Byakugan. He could be related to this activity, but it could be a coincidence." He gestured to the shrine, attempting to get another reading and sample, in case he could get an even better one.

"What are you thinking so far, Shikamaru?" asked Tenten, wondering how far he had gotten in his research. She wasn't one for this kind of thing, so she hadn't been paying much attention. "What can we do about this shrine?"

Shikamaru didn't answer initially, reading over several pieces of data. "The sekkisekki concentration is strong in this area, which doesn't make any sense to me."

"If this is a place with a lot of spiritual activity, wouldn't  _more_  sekkisekki in the air hurt the scanners? Like, wouldn't it be harder to get the blip on the radar we're studying right now?"

Shikamaru nodded. "We should have brought someone from Squad Twelve with us to see the data, just in case, but yeah. So what's going on here?"

The small nondescript shrine didn't seem to hold any significance, other than the fact that it was in the middle of the Land of Lightning countryside, far removed from any towns or villages. The Hidden Cloud was several miles away, and based on what Tenten had noticed, it seemed like their direct reach didn't extend this far.

"So if this is a shrine, a place for worship, who uses it?"

"Maybe it's a pilgrimage, to honor ancestors," Samui offered, wishing she knew more about the mythology of the area. "People from all over could come here for some kind of religious reason."

"What do we do about it though?" Tenten asked.

Shikamaru suddenly looked up, as though figuring something out. "Okay, we have the recordings we need. Everybody, stand back." The two of them jumped back to the edge of the clearing, confused as to why he was asking them to do that. "I'm going to place a seal on the shrine, to try to stop any energy from escaping it."

The Third Seat from Squad Eight raised his hand and began chanting, barriers extending from his palm and surrounding the shrine. Circular walls of light raised in sealing patterns, binding the energy within. He worked diligently for several minutes, chanting under his breath as Samui and Tenten watched. He added extra defensive layers, for added protection, before lowering his hand.

"That should keep the energy sealed inside it," he explained, before raising the device and trying to scan for more energy. Within seconds, he confirmed it. "The sekkisekki is starting to dissipate. This area will become clear within a few days."

Samui and Tenten exchanged surprise glances. "What? How did that work?"

"I think the shrine was somehow feeding the sekkisekki, keeping it in the air," explained Shikamaru. "I'm willing to bet that there are more of these shrines at each of those locations we scanned for earlier."

"So this was how they messed with our scanners," said Samui. "Whoever did this was ingenious."

"Are we still saying it's Aizen?" asked Tenten, ready to knock some heads if that were true.

Shikamaru wasn't sure. "I don't know. But if all of this is really connected to the Biju and Aizen's plan, then we need to seal the rest of these shrines, so the sekkisekki will clear and our scanners will work again."

* * *

After Naruto left, Tatsuki wished that she wasn't so bored. It was tedious work, trying to change her chakra's nature to fit a certain element. She wished that the shortcut that the toads introduced to her, the idea of using shadow clones to speed up the training time, would work for her, but the Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu was something that she couldn't master.

Apparently, her odd chakra network made using Shadow Clones too unstable. According to the toads, her chakra nature was too dependent on the presence of the Nanabi's chakra within the ring, so her body wasn't adapted completely yet. She couldn't even form one single shadow clone, and no other types of clones caused the memory transfer that the Shadow Clone Jutsu boasted. If she were to successfully create a clone, she would make her already fragile chakra nature even more fragile. This wouldn't work for her.

Even so, she had managed to finally turn the rock into dust with the force of her earth chakra alone. She was trying to do it again and again, in much faster times, and she eventually managed to do it three more times within an hour. She was getting faster and more adapted to using it, and it made her extremely proud.

She had to keep her mind focused on her training, but she kept wondering if everything would be easier if she just dipped into the Nanabi's chakra to boost her own. She had  _some_  amount of control over it, and she was sure she could just tap into the chakra, without producing a tail, for an extra boost in the amount of earth chakra she could produce.

But she didn't. She respected the words of her teacher, and the wishes of the toads. If she weren't careful, she'd slip up and give the Nanabi too much free reign, and the tails would consume her until it breaks free. She couldn't let that happen, so she kept to trying to train her own reserves, which were getting bigger and bigger the more time passed.

When she finally managed to do it a fourth time, she started trying to perform the jutsu Naruto was teaching her first, a supplementary and defensive technique, theEarth-Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu. She already knew there were several derivative jutsu she could use in conjunction with this, but she couldn't get ahead of herself. She only had so much time to get ready for Aizen's next move, and she wouldn't have enough time to keep going once he struck.

She made a hand-sign and slammed her fist on the ground, trying to send chakra into the ground beneath her, to soften it up and disappear into the earth. The earth chakra failed, again, and she cursed. "Damn." She tried over and over again, and the moment that she felt it succeed, was the moment that she realized that she really didn't know how to get back up yet.

When her body submerged itself in the earth, except for her head, she said in exasperation,  **"Earth-Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu."**  It was odd, because she could suddenly sense the ground around her, even beyond the barrier that Naruto had created. There was something just beyond its limits, like two men standing there.

She froze, wishing that she had Naruto there to help her figure out what to do. She finally managed to learn a jutsu that uses her chakra nature, but she had no idea how to follow through with it in order to get out.

"Oh, there's nothing here, sir. Why are you-"

"I can see a massive amount of chakra," another voice answered, a commanding voice. "Hidden behind a wall of yin chakra."

She prayed silently for Naruto to come and save her, before a sword, glowing blue with energy, suddenly cut through the barrier.

She was powerless to move as a figure stepped into Naruto's supposedly protected space. "I guess I should be glad that you captured yourself for us, you idiot." The man moved too fast for her to see anything more than the one clear, lavender eye staring back at her.

* * *

He had fond memories of the village, but seeing it again made him sad. He remembered his old apartment, the Academy, Ichiraku Ramen... He wished that he could see all of those structures one last time, but the village was a ghost town of rubble.

The Hokage Tower was gone, and the mountain behind it was demolished. The heads of the Hokage had been stripped from the mountainside, and it looked as though none of the survivors had bothered to revive it. Or maybe they couldn't. Naruto could see it from where he was standing, deep in the woods, wondering how much longer it would be.

When he finally found it, he couldn't help but frown. The monument was like a living replica of all the years he had missed, all the battles he should have been there to see. He should have saved the village, but it was too late.

The Fourth Shinobi World War monument was very similar to the gravestone of the Third Hokage he remembered, a man he had mourned as though he lost a grandfather. It was shaped like a flame, to represent the Will of Fire, a philosophy that he still retained today.

The names of the dead were too great to number, and if he had time, he could probably count several hundred names.  _Tsunade Senju... Jiraiya... Sakura Haruno... Shikamaru Nara... Tenten... Kakashi Hatake..._  It continued to list too many of his friends and comrades, people who had been close to him had died in the battle. If he knew the significance of each of their deaths, he could probably weave the entire story of the Fourth Shinobi World War, but he didn't know all the details.

 **You don't want to know all that happened, kit. Do you really want to see how they all died?** The Kyuubi said calmly in his mindscape.  **I know death and destruction as much as anyone else, and I'd be happy to share the portion of what I saw after you passed away. But I know you aren't ready to see that. One day, if you ever want to see what Tobi and Madara Uchiha did, I'll share it with you.**

Naruto stared down at his stomach quizzically.  _"That's oddly helpful of you,"_  he thought back _. "What's up with that?"_

The Kyuubi didn't respond back, but Naruto seemed to notice something odd. He pulled his foot away, revealing something that truly reminded him of so many people. The necklace of the First Hokage, the necklace given to him by Tsunade. He stared at the gems attached to it for a moment before putting it on and smiling.

The Leaf must have found his body after the Akatsuki were done with him. He was probably buried somewhere in the village. They had placed the necklace on the monument's statue, and he bawled. It was a bittersweet moment, tears crawling down his face. Even after his life was over, he had made some kind of impact on the population. It made him both incredibly happy and incredibly sad, and he couldn't deal with it.

He held the charms of the necklace in his hand, before wiping away the tears. He couldn't afford to be sad. The necklace was his now, and his alone.

* * *

_"No!" someone screamed, rushing into the dark cavern. It was girl with dark hair and lavender eyes, wearing the Hidden Leaf flak jacket. She was hysterical, her Byakugan activated as she clung to the body of the boy with the orange jumpsuit. "No, you can't be dead! You can't!"_

_Two more people suddenly appeared in the room, both wearing the same uniform. A dog stood by one of them, and the other had sunglasses covering his eyes. "Oh, no. We're too late." The boy with the dog's voice broke, and it seemed impossible._

_Naruto Uzumaki was dead, and judging by the smell, he had been dead for a few days. They had been too late, and the Akatsuki had just left him there to rot. Kiba looked as though he was going to break down, and Shino put a hand on his shoulder to somehow comfort him. Kiba looked up in surprise, realizing that it was probably the first time that Shino had ever actively sought to touch someone in an emotional moment, outside of sparring. Kiba was glad for both of his teammates, and they needed to be there for her now._

_It seemed like minutes passed before an explosion sounded off in the distance, and it was clear that they needed to get back. Kiba walked up to the girl, crying into Naruto's chest. "Hinata, we need to go." He started to pick up the body, but Hinata refused. "Hinata, seriously! Now's not the time! The frontlines are counting on this information, and we need to get back to someone from the Comm Unit immediately to tell HQ. They need to know where the Gedo Statue is!"_

_After Kiba had him safely over his shoulder, Hinata halted him. "Wait. Just... hold on a second." Her voice would be unintelligible to anyone else, but Kiba and Shino knew what she was saying. She reached up to Naruto's neck, pulling off the necklace before putting it on herself. She held on for dear life, like it was the only thing that mattered in the world. She felt something change in her eyes, her Byakugan somehow changing, as tears ran down her face._

* * *

If Naruto had not been crying before, he was crying now. He had no idea what just happened, but the Kyuubi seemed to rustle in his mindscape.

**Sorry, kit. That was something that you had to see. I saw them come into that cavern while I was in the statue, waiting for Tobi and Madara to activate the Juubi.**

_"I'm glad you showed it to me."_

He wiped at his face and headed back to Tatsuki, so that he could perform the spell he had been putting off. He needed to use an adapted Kido to find Bijuu chakra, because he needed to find them now, more than ever. He would never let someone use the Bijuu for malicious purposes again.

Halfway there, he finally spotted the first living person he had in the distance, and it was clear that she was one of the Hyuuga-Sarutobi clan. Her hair was in a pony tail, but she looked as though she was on alert. Naruto wished that the world around him would stop finding ways to remind him about Hinata and Hanabi, but it wasn't in the cards.

He froze and tried to hide somewhere inconspicuous, but it was useless. The Byakugan would see through any disguise.

He continued forward, hoping to somehow sneak past her. He wished he had known that the edge of the clan's patrol was here, near the edge of the ruined village. Tatsuki was at the training ground, not far now from where he lived, so he quietly slipped behind a ruined building and put his fingers in a cross.

Three clones appeared behind him, and he wished that that wasn't his limit. The doppelgangers understood what he needed them to do, immediately dispersing in different directions to throw off the Byakugan. He didn't know if the advanced Byakugan could also see the difference with shadow clones, but usually, the chakra was so evenly dispersed that they couldn't tell who was the original.

He continued toward the training ground in the next instant, wondering how long he could keep the clones activated. Three so far was his limit on how many times he could divide what little chakra he had, but that would only improve over time. He just needed to know how long he could keep the clones activated, because it used to be indefinitely.

Naruto finally arrived at the training ground, but he immediately knew something was wrong. The barrier had been broken, and there was a hole in the ground large enough for a person. He didn't have time to be excited that Tatsuki had finally learned the technique, because she was apparently missing. Had she broken out herself? Or did someone break out for her?

One of his clones suddenly dispelled, sending information to his mind. That clone had been heading toward the clan's compound, a few miles away, and had apparently seen Tatsuki in the arms of a guy wearing body armor and carrying a sword. The man was carrying her toward the Hanabi's family, and he immediately cursed at his luck.

* * *

When Tatsuki came to, she was barely coherent of what was happening around her, but the first thing she heard were voices. She was still in the arms of someone with odd armor, holding her down so hard that she couldn't move a muscle to get free. She assumed that it was some kind of chakra trick, but she hated the idea that she couldn't escape somehow.

Tatsuki knew she had paper bombs in her pack, and she could probably try to fight off the soldiers holding her, but she couldn't be sure it would work. She had nothing and was trapped under his arm.

"What's the meaning of this?" asked the voice of the man holding her.

A frail female voice spoke up. "Whatever do you mean?"

"We found this one in the village," he shouted back. "Who is she and what is she doing here? I've never seen her on any of the registries."

"Perhaps your stolen eye lied to you," she replied back. "She looks familiar to me, but I'm afraid that my old mind can't remember her name. Perhaps she's a cousin of a cousin?"

Tatsuki looked around with groggy eyes, seeing an upside down view of the woman answering. The woman was so old, with odd clear eyes, that it surprised her that the woman could stand. Why was this woman covering for her, someone she had never met?

"Don't lie to us! We know she isn't a member of your clan, because she doesn't have the Byakugan," the man's partner answered, a female in the same type of armor.

The woman laughed heartily. "I'm afraid that the trait is not always inherited these days. Too much Sarutobi in the blood, all thanks to my late husband." The woman waved at her specifically. "You can blame him for that, my love. I'll take her from you now, Lord Genisuke."

The man shook his head. "No, we're not giving her up; this one has a massive amount of chakra." He seemed to realized something, but he tried to hide it. "You know as well as I do that someone who isn't on the registry can't be allowed to go unchecked, family or not."

The lord's partner pointed to the woman. "Lady Hanabi, the tax collector will be here within the next few days. Remember that the only reason you and your clan are alive is because of Lord Genisuke's good mercy."

The two samurai walked away calmly, with Tatsuki in tow, and she wished that they would do something to stop them. But the clan she assumed were the Hyuuga-Sarutobi that Naruto had mentioned did nothing to stop them. She wished she could move, but they had somehow paralyzed her. She had to hope that Naruto would figure it out and get her free.

* * *

Naruto heard the guards shout for him the moment that he appeared in the vicinity of the compound. Two of them rushed out to meet him, and the instant that they confirmed who he was, they settled into the opening stance of the Gentle Fist.

"Don't come any closer, Uzumaki!" one of them said. "We should kill you on sight!"

"Well, I've already died once," he muttered. "Where the hell have you taken the girl, Tatsuki?"

"Girl?" one of them said, unsure of how to respond. "What are you talking about?"

"The two samurai brought a girl here earlier," he explained. "She's with me, and chances are, you've got her locked away in some basement for stepping where she shouldn't. So give her back to me, please. I've already done enough damage to your clan, and I don't want to do any more!"

A man walked up to the two guards, the spitting image of Neji, if Neji had an oddly shaped nose and short dark hair. He held an air of authority, and Naruto remembered seeing him the last time he was here, years ago. "Understatement of the century, Uzumaki. I should ask why you're standing here in a physical form, but I honestly don't care. If you don't exit the premises, we'll kill you where you stand."

Naruto didn't want to fight them, but if they had Tatsuki, he didn't have a choice. "Let me talk to Lady Hanabi! I want to work this out without a fight. I feel bad enough as it is."

"You should feel awful. Do you know how hard it has been for us, since we lost the Kyuubi as a bargaining chip?" asked the man in charge. "You stole it from us, and you deserve to die!"

Naruto held up his hands in defeat. "Seriously, I don't want to fight. Let me talk to Hanabi, and figure out how to work this out. I just want the girl."

The man seemed to realize something. "So you're with the girl that the samurai bastards took away from here, aren't you?"

Naruto nodded, hoping they would help. "You don't have her anymore. Can you please tell me which direction to go? I can get out of your hair right now, and we'll pretend that none of this ever happened."

The man shook his head, dipping into his fighting stance. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I cannot allow that. You've cost our people far too much, shinigami."

Naruto pushed away a strike from the man's taijutsu, jumping backward and nearly running into a tree. He whipped around it, using it as defense from the kunai heading right for him, before jumping into the tree's canopy to get away from his pursuers.

 **"Fire-Style: Fireball Jutsu!"** Flames sparked from the tiger hand-sign, extending into the trees and threatening to burn him alive. He fell to the ground and rolled away from the powerful heat, before spinning and throwing several kunai of his own.

The man instantly spun, turning into an absolute defense that glowed with the blue light of the man's chakra. The kunai were deflected easily as he pivoted around with a speed he could hardly match, and Naruto knew he would have to get around that.

He ran to the right, throwing a hand-sign and creating his max number of clones. The triplets all prepared to attack him head on, and Naruto took a deep breath and held back slightly.

He wished that he could finish this fight in his gigai, but it was clear that he was at a disadvantage here. He needed to train too if he was going to learn to fight as a shinobi in the foreseeable future. He decided to stick with it as long as possible, but if it went too hairy, he could pop a Soul Candy and deflate the gigai.

The three clones converged on the main fighter, and Naruto hurled several shuriken from his pouch at the other two Byakugan users. They were forced to dodge, and it was clear that the only one who could use Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation was the one in charge. He wished that he knew the man's name.

"This isn't a game, shinigami! You're fighting as a shinobi! I don't know what you think you're doing if you seriously think you'll stop us this way!" The man jumped forward and dispelled the three clones with quick jabs to the stomach, shoulders, and thighs. The smoke filled the area for a quick moment, and Naruto wished he could do more than this.

He tried to jump head on, realizing that he could probably do this now. He had enough control now; it wouldn't be like when he was a child, and the Kyuubi interfered with everything. He had a lot more practice controlling his energy.

The instant that the spiraling orb of energy appeared in his palm, the wave of nostalgia hit him like a freight train. The blue light spun around his hand, rotating with power and intensity. Naruto poured more power into it, and it instantly expanded to about the size of the average person.  **"Giant Rasengan!"**

Naruto ran full force into the group of enemies, and the main Hyuuga-Sarutobi did not even move out of the way, unlike the other two. He rotated once more, falling into his ultimate defense, and Naruto hit it head on as hard as he could.

The energy collided like some kind of swirling, sparking vortex of chakra, and it proved powerful enough to destroy every bit of the forest around them. Naruto barely braced himself as he was thrown several yards away, directly into the trunk of a tree. The other man was thrown backward as well, and the crater of destruction was much larger than Naruto had ever anticipated. His gigai was nearing empty.

"Hotori!" one of the other two shouted, rushing over to the recovering man in charge. "Are you all right?"

The Byakugan wielder stood and shook himself off, blood running down his face and a large bruise already beginning to form on both arms. The force of the collision seemed to have broken one of the man's arms. "Damn you, Uzumaki!" He threw a shuriken with his free hand, but there was so little force behind it that Naruto was able to roll out of the way before walking back toward them.

"Tell me where they took the girl, and I'll leave you alone. I'm sorry for what happened here, but it was all self-defense. I swear." Sweat was pouring down his face, and he wondered how many weeks and months it would take for his chakra to return to near unlimited status so he never had to deal with exhaustion like this.

"Never," Hotori replied. "My sister died because of you! You brought war to our doorstep by taking the Kyuubi away from us! I can't live with knowing that you are alive, and she's dead!"

Naruto didn't respond. He knew the political balance that the Bijuu gave, but how balanced can it really be if there's not a viable jinchuuriki? The Kyuubi had been just sitting in a jar. And why couldn't Hotori blame the people directly responsible for her death?

"I accept the blame," Naruto said suddenly, realizing he needed to own up to this, even if they weren't one hundred percent justified. He knelt down in front of them. By this point, more of the clan were starting to come outside to watch the ordeal. "I am sorry for the battles that I have caused. I was coerced into stealing the Kyuubi by my own enemies, who planned to use it for themselves. I was not in a position where I could fight back, but I wish that I could. I wish I could go back and stop the person who took advantage of you and your lack of a Bijuu." He took a deep breath. "I did not want this to happen, and I truly hope that you can come to forgive me one day."

He started to leave, to find his own way to find Tatsuki. Maybe he could trace some amount of spiritual pressure in his spirit form; if he had a Soul Pager, he could scan for it right now and it would solve a lot of trouble.

"Now, now, you're not going to leave without enjoying tea with an old friend, are you?" He turned to see the familiar old lady walking out, and she looked even worse than she did years ago. Lady Hanabi looked weak and frail, like she was going to fall apart if someone breathed the wrong way around her. "You visitors need to stop making me come outside. I can't move around like I used to, you know?"

"Lady Hanabi!" Naruto said, glad to see her. She did not seem to be angry, like most of the other people around her. "I don't have much time to waste. Can you please tell me where she was taken?"

The woman nodded. "Of course I can. But I'm coming with you."

"What?" Hotori and Naruto asked at the same time.

"With all due respect, Lady Hanabi, you're ill. You can't go with him," said a woman who looked like some kind of nurse.

"And you'll harm the precarious balance we have with the samurai in the first place," said another of the guards. "This is supposed to be a time of rebuilding."

"I can do whatever I please," the woman said, stretching her old bones and somehow popping all of them out of place. She coughed suddenly, and Naruto wondered how healthy she really was. "I've got one more adventure in me, and I'd like to give Genisuke a piece of my mind."

"I can't allow this," Hotori said. "As Clan Head, I forbid it."

"Well, I un-forbid it, child. I bathed you when you were a baby. You hold no authority over me," the woman said. "I'll lead the way. Come along, Naruto, we're not going to get there until dark at this rate."

* * *

When they finally arrived at their destination, Tatsuki couldn't help but feel a little underwhelmed by its appearance. It had seemed to her that this guy, Genisuke, was some kind of warlord who had authority over the Leaf, at least; he collected taxes from them, and most of them seemed angry but unable to do anything against him. Why were they so scared of him?

The small building looked to be nothing more than an abandoned mansion. She was actually surprised that there wasn't more to it than that, but it was in the middle of nowhere. She wondered if this was his permanent place, or if the man was just dropping by. It had been close to the Hidden Leaf, so she imagined that it was still within the Land of Fire.

"Stay here, and don't move," the black-haired man in charge said, dropping her to the floor of the dirty basement. "Watch her, Hiro; don't let her make hand-signs." The brunette beside him, a shorter man wearing thinner black and gray armor, nodded, standing watch. Genisuke disappeared up the stairs and out of the basement.

Hiro smiled down at her, and she tried to not look at the man's snaggletooth. "How are you, little lady?" She ignored him as he took away her scroll and all of her equipment. "So you aren't a talkative shinobi, are you?" He stared down at her, his green eyes calculating her appearance. "Although you don't look like much, so calling you a shinobi is probably an overstatement." He wiggled his armored hand in front of her face, and it glinted lightly with blue light.

Tatsuki gritted her teeth, hoping that he wouldn't notice the ring on her finger. It wouldn't come off either way, but if he tried to reach for it, he might think something is fishy. He moved swiftly, turning her over in one motion and trying to bind her hands. She screamed out loud, aiming a kick that would have enough power to throw him into the wall ten yards away. Hiro evaded it by inches, but Tatsuki twisted back around and implanted her feet in his chest. The samurai's armor didn't give, probably hurting her ankle, but Hiro slammed against a bookcase that fell on top of her in turn.

"Geez, are you really this dumb?" she asked, standing up. Tatsuki headed toward the stairs, jumping up the dingy wooden steps two at a time, before reaching for the basement door.

Suddenly, she was back on the floor and completely confused. Hiro stood in front of her, and all of her limbs were bound together and to a pole behind her. The samurai pointed to the back of his glove.

"No, I'm pretty sure that _you_  are that dumb," the man said. "Genjutsu is a good trick, isn't it? I happen to be pretty good at it, although nothing beats my sword." He patted the hilt on his side. "If you get up, I'll kill you."

"Why am I here anyway?" Tatsuki asked, selectively oblivious to Hiro's threat. "Why hold me here? I know I shouldn't have been in the Leaf Village, but I don't even know who you are."

Hiro actually grinned, suddenly having to hold back laughter. "You should know exactly who we are, or who Lord Genisuke is. How do you not know who he is?"

Tatsuki looked around, trying to come up with something to say. "I'm not from around here."

"Really? But you should know that the Genisuke's Invisible Hand spreads throughout the world! There's no place on this earth that doesn't bow to him!" He laughed again. "This has to be a joke. Even the little children know that samurai like me are in charge."

Tatsuki was just more and more confused. Who was this Invisible Hand? There's just no way that this man rules the entire world, so she realized that he had to be talking only about the Elemental Nations. Maybe he didn't even know there were places far beyond the sea, like Japan and China?

"You still didn't tell me why I'm still here," she finally said. "If you're so stringent about the rules, why am I even alive? Why not just kill me for breaking your rules?"

Hiro paced in front of her, holding her equipment in his hands; he seemed to be trying to figure out what to say or how to say it. "Lord Genisuke should never be questioned!"

Tatsuki smirked, seeing through it easily. "So you don't even know why I'm being kept down here, do you?"

Hiro growled. "I know why, but I'm not going to tell  _you_!" He sat in the corner, and Tatsuki wished that she had something that she could do to get free. Her only option was the ring on her finger, but would it even help to transform with its chakra? She was underground, and she couldn't guarantee that the strength boost would be enough to break free from the ropes. She cursed under her breath, knowing she had few to no options.

She mentally prepared herself to fight at a moment's notice, and she made a silent goal that if she had the chance, she'd take it and use the Nanabi to do something to escape. Maybe it would scare them enough that it would work, because she knew they wouldn't expect her to suddenly gain wings and fly out of the basement's window.

* * *

Traveling through the forest, the old woman on his back, headed to save his shinobi pupil; Naruto wondered what had lead his life to this point. What odd stroke of luck had allowed him to come this far and to be challenged like this?

The woman had not made a sound almost the entire way to the destination, outside of telling him which directions to take. He jumped from branch to branch, surprising himself by how much he missed it, but he still knew he would be faster if he used Shunpo in spirit form.

"We could have already been there, you know?" He finally said.

"Oh, you know these are old bones!" the woman answered. "I don't believe that my body is built for that kind of travel, even if I'm just being carried like I am now."

Naruto nodded, jumping forward once again. "Let me know if you need a break."

"Will do, young one," Hanabi stated.

"Hey, technically, I'm older than you!"

"You certainly don't look it, but you probably act like it. Let loose a little bit, you're far too serious, Naruto. You've lost that rambunctious personality that my sister loved so much," Hanabi stated.

"I'm a different man," Naruto replied. "I've seen things. I've done things, things I'm not proud of." He rubbed his stomach lightly. "I'll always regret what happened the last time I was in the Hidden Leaf, Lady Hanabi. I wish I could take it all back and give up the Kyuubi; it's done nothing but cause me trouble."

Hanabi shook her head. "I'll take your apology, Naruto, but truth be told, I've always hated the fox. I hate the idea that we had to rely on it to remain balanced to the other nations. Our little clan might not be much, but without it, it was easy for the Land of Iron to make their move. The war ended a year ago, with their victory, but my last act as Clan Head was the deal I brokered with Genisuke to make sure my family was safe and didn't fight. My eldest son, Hotori, is the Clan Head now."

"So who is this guy, anyway? Why did the Land of Iron attack?"

Hanabi shrugged. "Power? Money? I don't know. But Genisuke is the leader of the Land of Iron, the leader of the samurai."

Naruto thought back to where Tatsuki was before she was taken. "When I got there, the cloaking spell I used was gone. How did he find her if he can't see the barrier, or even be able to sense that it's there?"

Hanabi let go of his shoulder and pointed at her eye. "He took a Byakugan from one of my daughters, and uses it to see both yin and yang chakra."

Naruto hated the sound of this man. "Why would he take Tatsuki with him?"

"He probably senses that she holds the Nanabi," the Hyuuga-Sarutobi woman said. When he started to object, she set her jaw. "Oh, don't think we didn't notice. To us, spying the Bijuu is nothing. Who is this girl?"

Naruto fell into a long speech about the war brewing with Aizen, about Ichigo and his friends, about Urahara and his travels through the Elemental Nations. Eventually, he explained the ring and its purpose in sealing with Bijuu away, while still allowing access to the Nanabi's power.

"I've got several scrolls that Urahara collected," Naruto explained, pointing to his pack. "One of them shows how he sealed the Nanabi, and how to do it again if I need to. Originally, I was going to come to the Elemental Nations to find the Bijuu and see how many there are left here, to see how many Aizen has."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I know where the Yonbi is."

He whipped his head around. "Really? Where?"

"Inside Lord Genisuke."

* * *

Temari had always disliked the color white, but her new uniform matched her true alliance: to Gin Ichimaru and Sosuke Aizen. She had made some modifications to better suit her liking, including a black mesh underskirt and a white coat that opened up enough to show her cleavage, that ended at her mid-thigh. The coat was tied together by a black sash.

She hated going on assignments like these, deep into the underground of the desert. She hated the natural environment of Hueco Mundo, even if it was more like a giant cave with a sand roof than just a desert. There was far more to the Forest of Menos than meets the eye, stretching for hundreds of miles to the far corners of an infinite wasteland. She imagined that there was a boundary somewhere, but she had never found it and probably never would.

"Why do I even have the assignment at all?" she said to herself. "Aizen doesn't need her."

She wasn't going to question the former captain, but why would he still have an interest in Momo Hinamori in the first place? That woman was trash and sticks around with trash. He should just ignore her and let her starve to death.

Temari finally found who she was looking for. The large figure of an Adjuchas appeared on the horizon, and she sped toward it in a single step. "Guardian!" She was glad that she found him so quickly.

The giant hollow turned to look at her, and initially smiled at her appearance, before realizing she was wearing the white robe of Las Noches. The Gillian-Class Menos did not seem to care that she was affiliated with Aizen, but it looked as though the Guardian of the Forest of Menos had his entire legion of hollows surrounding her, only keeping them at bay through sheer spiritual willpower. **"Why are you here?"**

"Lord Aizen has a special mission for you."

* * *

Naruto could feel the tension rising, staring ahead blindly into the forest. "Why are we so far back? I can't see anything."

Hanabi rolled her eyes, her Byakugan stretching the blood vessels around her face. "Lord Genisuke, if he's there, can't see us from where we are, but I can see them. My eyes are stronger than his stolen eye."

Naruto understood. "So am I going to be able to sneak into the base in spirit form? His guards won't be able to see me, right?"

"I'm afraid I don't truly know," Hanabi explained. "We speculate that some of his top elite forces are spiritually-aware, that he somehow forced them to see spirits after he stole the Byakugan. I'm going to tear that eye from his eye socket." Naruto had never seen a more terrifying and intimidating old woman, and it made no sense in the grand scheme of things.

They didn't say anything for a full minute while she analyzed the base and mapped it out in her mind. Naruto decided to drop the gigai, deflating it to its tiny balloon shape, before spreading out his spiritual radar. He could see six signatures a few miles ahead, all packed together. Tatsuki was among them, the largest signature by far due to her connection to the Nanabi, even if he could only see the reiryoku half of its energy. He assumed the next biggest energy level was Genisuke, with the Yonbi.

"Lord Genisuke has nine guards," Hanabi explained. "Tatsuki is tied in the basement, guarded by Genisuke's genjutsu specialist Hiro. Genisuke himself is upstairs in a meeting with two of his people."

"Genjutsu?" Naruto asked, hands itching to take his sword and attack. "Samurai generally don't use shinobi techniques, right?"

"Typically, yes. But almost all of Genisuke's forces have learned more ways to use chakra than their typical blades."

Naruto counted the signatures once more, realizing that of the ten guards, only six would be able to see his approach directly and fight him. "Where is the entrance closest to Tatsuki?"

As soon as she explained where the backdoor was, Naruto disappeared with a flash of Shunpo, hoping to find her and get out. He didn't hear Hanabi's warning.

The instant that he got close, Naruto examined the house for himself, finding the door. Two samurai were stationed as guards, one of them, a girl with auburn hair, standing on the roof, and Naruto had a few seconds, at best, before Genisuke warned them of his approach.

He flashed again, bursting through the door and immediately finding himself face to face with a spear aimed right at his face. He managed to reflexively twist out of the way of its reach, blocking it with his sealed zanpakutou, and the end of the spear whirred with energy. He cried out in pain at the large gash on his arm; they must have used yin chakra to extend their blade.

The man in front of him was huge, one of the largest men he had ever laid his eyes on. It was almost impossibly so, because he was nearly eight feet tall, and his black hair almost touched the ceiling. His weapon was a black and silver naginata that perfectly matched his armor's color, a yellow ribbon dangling from one end.

"You guys need to work on your welcoming party," Naruto said, retaliating with a swing of his sword that knocked the large man back several feet into the shelf on the wall of the kitchen. "Can you show me to the basement?"

"We're not as stupid as you think we are," the brutish man said, stabbing forward with the staff and hoping to spear him through with the power radiating from it.

"You sure about that?" Naruto upped his reiatsu, the power bouncing off of it before he deflected the stab and raised a hand.  **"Hainawa!"** The Bakudo glowed with yellow light around his open palm, before striking out like a bolt of lightning and wrapping around the enemy, stunning him in place. Naruto kicked outward, knocking him back into the wall before moving to the next room, looking for any way downstairs.

In the great room of the house, the samurai were starting to gather. Two were already standing there, and Naruto barely had enough time to memorize details before the one on the left moved with such speed that he thought it was impossible, slamming against his zanpakutou with his katana.

"Go save Goro!" the woman shouted, the same woman who had been guarding the roof. "You can't fight him anyway because you can't see him."

"If you say so, Amaya. If you tell me where to attack, I can hit him."

"Too much trouble! Get the big guy!" Amaya shouted, locking blades with Naruto again. The shinigami wanted to hit the retreating one with a Kido, to at least prevent him from helping his friend in the kitchen, but the girl was good enough to distract him.

He clashed with the redhead again and again, slamming sword against sword hard enough to shower the room with sparks. Every so often, the girl would extend yin chakra to her blade, trying to gain the upper-hand through the added reach, but Naruto managed to stay out of the way.

She suddenly jumped backward, confusing him, before shouting, " **Lightning-Style: Wave of Inspiration!"**  With several hand-seals, electricity swept fast enough across her sword that Naruto couldn't get away, the attack coursing through his veins.

He screamed, slamming forward and throwing her against the wall, fighting through the pain. "It's gonna take more than that!" He kicked the sword from her hand and immediately turned, finally finding the door downstairs, in the hallway.

Within seconds, he was standing on the basement floor, staring at an unconscious Tatsuki. He muttered under his breath to reassure her, knowing that he could get out quickly the moment that he had her in his grasp. He cut off her bindings and leaned down to pick her up, and she remained unconscious.

A single jab to the stomach stopped him, and his entire world dissolved into a rainbow of colors and melting solids. Faces and sounds and smells mixed into a single sensation that flickered in different ways and into different colors. He felt himself fall to the ground, but his thoughts were muddled by the illusion, preventing him from breaking it.

 **I got you, kit.** The fox lent him some of his power, clearing his mind quickly enough to restore his sanity. The genjutsu fell apart, and he forced the fox's chakra to retreat.

"How did you break out of that?"

"Why would I tell you?" Naruto asked, moving with Shunpo in one second and finding the chink in his armor, a sword through the ribcage and into a lung. Hiro fell to the ground, probably dead, as two more people ran into the room. A blonde man with a small knife on his belt immediately ran to Hiro's side, hands glowing with green light over the man's wound.

Naruto turned to face the man he knew to be the one in charge, and he was glad to know that Tatsuki was already in his hands. He could leave at any time, and they wouldn't be able to stop him. "How's it going?"

"You don't really think I'm going to allow you to leave with the Nanabi's jinchuuriki, do you?" The samurai's Byakugan widened. "And the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki too? What luck!"

"You're not going to have either of us!" Naruto said, holding up his free hand and preparing a Shakkaho. At this close range, the blast would kill him, Naruto was certain. Genisuke drew a glowing nodachi in one move and cut the blast in half, the explosive heat destabilizing the foundation of the house. "I've never fought a shinigami before, but I know the basis of your techniques and how to defend against them!"

Naruto could not be more shocked, but he waved with the hand holding his sword, disappearing in a flash of speed outside.

He would have continued to use Shunpo to run back to Hanabi and carry both women out of there, but the hill was suddenly surrounded by hollows. So many hollows of various shapes and sizes, surrounding the house from the sky and the ground. High above the trees, they literally seemed to be appearing out of nowhere.

Tatsuki was starting to stir in his grasp, and Hanabi was out there, hopefully out of harm's way. The sheer mass of hollows was impossible to understand, and it stopped him in his tracks. Not a single one of them was moving toward him, all surrounding the hideout like a dome of white bone.

"Witness my Invisible Hand!" Lord Genisuke shouted from behind him, holding his nodachi in hand. His Byakugan was glimmering in the light.

"You do realize that I can see these, right?"

"Of course I do," the man said, his other samurai slowly gathering around him. The only two who were missing were Hiro and the blonde healer. "It's a bit of a misnomer to you, but I've grown fond of the name. Most of the people of this world kneel before my numbers, but even if you were to cut them all down, I have plenty more to replace it!"

How was it possible that he was controlling hollows? Where were they all coming from? It made zero sense that a human, even one who could use chakra, could control them. What was going on?

Naruto took a deep breath, sheathing his sword and raising his right hand. He gathered as much reiryoku as he could into the center of his palm.  **"Hado Number Sixty-three: Raikoho!"**  The yellow orb of light gathered before striking forward in a massive bolt of electricity, tearing a huge hole through the dome of hollows. The sound was deafening, and the power incredible, the wind from the blast enough to tear down small trees down below.

He heard several of them scream, roaring through the sky, and they tried to follow him as he used Shunpo to get away, Tatsuki still unconscious over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. He turned around in mid-air, stopping his speed fast enough to aim another Kido, gathering blue energy to the tip of his fingers.  **"Hado Number Seventy-three: Soren Sokatsui!"** The powerful blast of blue fire smashed against the monsters trying to follow him, and due to the angle, the spell charged right through and burned toward the house, where Genisuke and his forces were gathered. It was so fast that he was sure they wouldn't be able to counter it.

Naruto waited just long enough for the smoke to clear to realize that they Goro, the brute of a man he had bound with a Kido, had blocked the blast with a huge wall of water, and the entire lawn was soaked with the remains.

"What's going on?" asked Tatsuki, before suddenly freaking out upon seeing the devastation Naruto had just wreaked, and the still massive army of hollows headed their way. "Oh god, let me help!"

"No. Hold your breath, I have to get Hanabi and get the two of you out of here."

"I'm sorry, Naruto, that I couldn't do anything! I think they were using some kind of paralyzing genjutsu."

Naruto remembered his own experience with the hopefully now-dead Hiro's genjutsu. "It's all right." Without another moment, Naruto flickered out of sight and right to where the Clan Head was supposed to be in one combination of Shunpo steps.

The moment he realized that she was gone scared the shit out of him, and he couldn't feel her presence anywhere. "Damn it, where is she?" He knew something was wrong the moment that he couldn't feel the mass of hollows that had been following him. Tatsuki jumped off of his shoulder.

"Stay here. Don't move, seriously. I'll be back in a few seconds."

With another flash of speed, Naruto was back to the skies above the house where Genisuke's hideout had been, and somehow, everything was gone. It seemed impossible that the entire army and Genisuke's personal forces had disappeared in less than a few minutes. There was no clue as to how they could have left, and no spiritual trail. They had just up and left completely, and Naruto cursed.

Genisuke had gotten away. And they had Hanabi with them.


	28. Divide to Conquer

The ocean was in front of them once more, and Naruto enjoyed the sea breeze from his perch in a tree by the coast. He tried to feel peaceful, but his mind couldn't find focus on any one thing. He was thinking of Momo and how she was doing; he was certain that someone would contact him with any news on that front, but he didn't know if she was safe. She had to be. Hanabi, meanwhile, had been captured by these samurai, and Naruto had to save her. It was the only option, or the Hyuuga-Sarutobi would never speak to him again.

Tatsuki, meanwhile, had been training nonstop the moment that she and Naruto landed in the wilderness on the island to the north of the Hidden Mist Village. Her hand-signs were getting better with each day that passed, and she was nearly a master at adapting the basics of nature transformation. Naruto had already worked with her on some more basic ninjutsu to use, and she had not nailed them down just yet, but she was nearly there.

She finally screamed out loud, just to let off some steam, before dropping to the ground beside the tree. She didn't say anything for a long time, the two of them just enjoying the crashing waves against the shore.

She cleared her throat. "How are you feeling?"

Naruto swallowed before trying to lean back even farther, unable to calm his thoughts. "I've been better. I'd give just about anything to be back in the Soul Society, drinking one of Momo's special teas by her side." The thought of it almost pained him.

"Hmm. I wish I was in the dojo right now, in the moments right before a match starts. There's nothing quite like that feeling of adrenaline, you know?"

Naruto understood that completely. "The thrill is toxic and invigorating, all at the same time. As the years go by, that feeling doesn't go away, you just get smarter about when you let yourself embrace it."

Tatsuki grinned, her teeth shining with the sun. "I feel like we haven't gotten a chance to really talk about what's going on with me, and with you."

"We're talking now? What do you mean?"

"Well, I just have a few questions about being a jinchuuriki. What's it like for you?" She gestured to the ring. "I hear Chomei's voice all the time, like a constant urging and temptation in the back of my mind. I can always feel her, like she's a permanent part of me."

"It's the same for me," Naruto explained. "The fox has cooled off from how he used to be, although he's never told me why. He was violent and angry, and since I got him back, he's been almost helpful. It's a surreal experience." Naruto thought to the memory of Hinata's team finding his body, which he would have never seen if the Kyuubi had not witnessed it through the Gedo Statue. "What's she like?"

"Her voice is always calm, even-tempered. She sounds like she always has something to say, like she's biting her tongue. Do beetles even have tongues?" Tatsuki laughed, and Naruto smiled. "I don't think she's ever anything more than neutral, like she can't be angry or sad or happy. She's just Chomei."

Naruto thought that was interesting. "I'm not going to go into a lecture again, but I just want to tell you one more time, for good measure. If you can avoid it, don't use her. You're getting progressively better as time goes on, and you'll have a few more skills in your repertoire in no time. But don't rely on her unless you absolutely have to." He pointed at his chest with his thumb. "I don't want to sound arrogant, but I think I'm a good fighter. But if I wanted, there are few people I couldn't defeat if I used the fox's full power. I don't have control over it, and I'd probably destroy everyone and everything around me, but if I used all nine tails, I'd die and the Kyuubi would go free. And no one wants that."

"Is it really that powerful?"

"Yes. It is. It's nearly impossible to control, and despite working on it for a few years, I am not even really sure if I'll ever manage to achieve perfect control. I need to learn how as much as you do."

"Any chance that the scrolls have the answer?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. I've read all of them now, and Urahara didn't learn that any more than I did when I was alive."

"That entire library? How?"

He explained to her the ability of shared experiences with shadow clones, and every night since they'd started this journey, he'd had them working on while he got some rest. He had collectively read them all and gained all the knowledge.

"That's pretty incredible. I think the toads mentioned something like that to me. They tried to teach me to use that jutsu, and it wouldn't work on me."

Naruto remembered, her chakra network too unstable. "Maybe it might work one day, but it sucks that you can't use it now. You could train several times as fast on learning any particular jutsu." He wanted to try it himself, but there was far too much going on at the moment. "Are you nearly ready to get going? We need to head to the village now and try to figure out where the chakra is coming from."

"You sure that the spell works?"

"Only people I know who could do better are Tessai and Momo," Naruto replied. "There's bijuu chakra in the area somewhere, but we need more information. Too much ocean and too many hidden caverns on small islands. If Genisuke is here, then we need to know where his presence could be. If there's another jinchuuriki, then it's probably the Sanbi. The Sanbi is a sea creature, so we better hope that he's sealed within someone."

The two of them headed for the village after discussing their game plan at length, one more time. Naruto led her around the coast until they could find some kind of port, where they could sneak inside the village walls by faking a ship's crew. The moment that they found a small ship that looked like a merchant vessel, Naruto commandeered it by knocking the old man on board unconscious and stuffing him in the cargo bay. Tatsuki stared in wonder at Naruto's use of six shadow clones, all of them transformed into different identities, like they were ship crewmen. She just had to play along, hoping it would work after changing her clothes using the Transformation Jutsu to look more like a worker and less like a Japanese school girl.

"Looks like this a shipment of tea leaves from the Land of Tea," Naruto explained after looking at the ship's log in the cargo hold, which was crate upon crate upon bag upon bag of tea leaves. The smell was so thick in the air.

"Maybe we should dump in the harbor?" Tatsuki suggested, grinning to herself.

"Why would we do that? We need to use this as our way inside."

She just laughed. "Naruto, you need to read up on your US history."

"I don't even know where that is."

"Well, I'm shocked there's a place called the Land of freaking Tea. What's next, the Land of Rice?"

Naruto smirked, pulling the map out of the ship's log and pointing at an area along the southern coast of the Land of Fire.

"Oh wow. I stand amazed."

"Let's just get past the guards, and we'll figure out what to do from there. No matter what, we don't split up this time. This could be just as dangerous as the Hidden Leaf was, if not more so. Let's see what the Blood Mist Village is like these days."

The look on terror and wonder on her face was priceless.

* * *

Travelling through the dark depths of the Forest of Menos was definitely an odd experience. The only natural light came from the great crystal trees that reflected the moonlight from the tips of their branches, far above the desert sand. Momo's only consolation was her spiritual radar, and that nearly made her want to flee back to whatever dark cavern Ashido called home; there were signatures everywhere, the dense and powerful reiatsu of Menos Grande and even much weaker reiatsu of normal hollows. The more she was around him, the more familiar Kano's reiatsu was to her. She could feel him by her side, even without looking.

"It's just up ahead," he said, wearing the skull-like mask of a hollow over his face. "The nest has moved."

"How can you tell?"

Ashido didn't answer for another long moment. "I can usually pick up on subtle patterns in their spiritual pressures. There are no groupings of hollows nearby." He sped up again, jumping off of the cavern wall and running along the side of a tree, before spinning through the air and landing roughly on the ground below, the place oddly illuminated. If she focused hard enough, she'd see an opening in the desert floor above them, and it seemed that the sands from above were drifting down and pooling below.

"This is where I landed," Momo remarked. "What happened to the Adjuchas who fell with me?"

Kano raised his hand. "I killed it, I think, before the Gillian got there. I had to get you out quickly, or you'd have been devoured."

"Okay. Help me look," she muttered, glad for the extra light. "It has to be close."

But it wasn't. It wasn't anywhere near them, no matter how many times she created a tiny pinprick of light with Shakkaho to help find it. For all she knew, the weapon had been devoured or destroyed in the fall, which didn't make any sense at all.

She cursed, feeling more and more insecure about her safety and her entire position here. She felt stupid for coming, felt idiotic for allowing this to happen to her. She should have known more, prepared more; if she had just had the forethought, she could have planned for the trip, even if she didn't take anyone with her. If she had not used the spell instinctively, on a whim, she would have been able to find Aizen in Las Noches and try to stop him. No, she  _would_  stop him.

She just didn't know how it would be possible to do it without her zanpakutou.

"Damn. It's really not here, is it? Can you trace the reiatsu inside the sword?"

Momo shook her head. "I don't think so. This is so infuriating!"

 **"So are you!"** Instantly, the girl looked up to see an Adjuchas approaching from behind a tree. Kano immediately drew his sword, standing in front of her protectively.  **"I just need a snack, and shinigami are my favorite meal! Judging by the spiritual pressure, you'll get me that much closer to Vasto Lorde-level after I've eaten your bodies!"**

Kano didn't move from his position, sword grip tight, and Momo was already chanting under her breath to prepare her Kido traps and seals. "Get ready for this guy! He's the most powerful hollow in all of this forest! With you here to back me up, I might be able to finally defeat him."

 **"At least you acknowledge my strength,"**  the purple-skinned hollow said, its mask stretching into an awkward smile with far too many teeth. The hollow hole on its chest was quivering with every breath of fresh air, and Momo swallowed.  _That's a sign he's close to his next stage of hollow evolution..._  He opened his fist, and the moment that her katana appeared in his palm, she whipped a Hainawa into action, trying to grab it out of the hollow's hand.

The yellow chain of Kido light snapped near his hand, but the hollow closed his fist in time, only allowing the Bakudo to wrap around his hand and hold him in place. The hollow smiled before reaching out with his other hand and grabbing the chain, yanking her off the ground and right toward him.

She didn't have enough time to recover and counter, the hollow's strength so much that she moved far too fast. In a dash of Shunpo, Kano appeared in front of her and cut the Hainawa. He reached out and yanked her hand, standing in place and spinning her around him to stop her momentum.

The Guardian raised a powerful fist, aiming to crush them both, and Momo flipped around and created a small box-like barrier that cracked, but held, against his spiritual pressure and the force of his attack.  **"Damn you, witch!"**

"Give me back my zanpakutou!" She shouted, preparing another spell.

Kano moved in the next instant, slashing at the hollow's forearm and colliding against his tough skin, only nicking the surface. With blazing speed, he continued to cut everywhere against the hollow's body, aiming at every possible limb and angle. By the time he was finished, he was covered in small cuts, but they did nothing extreme against his tough exterior.

The Adjuchas suddenly sprouted large, pointed limbs from his back, and within moments, they were being hit with a barrage. Kano defended both of them by parrying the appendages, cutting them whenever he had the chance.

Momo backed up and nearly tripped over a large rock behind her, and something large snapped above her. She looked up to see several falling crystal branches heading for her; a trap set by the hollow beforehand. He must have known they were coming.

 **"Hado Number One: Sho!"** She put as much force as she could into the attack, thrusting the falling debris far away from her telekinetically. She was distracted enough that she didn't notice the Gillians heading for her, and everything about this situation was getting more and more troublesome. One of them suddenly began gathering red reiryoku at the front of its mouth, and more followed suit until there were three of them about to hit both of the shinigami.

"It's a Cero!" she shouted, knowing that she wouldn't have enough power to block them or divert them without time for a full incantation. She flashed out of the way, managing to jump high enough to avoid where the three attacks were converging on Ashido's location. She started to shout for him to move, but the man suddenly twisted and produced a shield made of a large hollow's mask, much bigger than the covering his head. It somehow blocked all three of the beams of condensed spirit energy, bathing several hundred yards of the forest in crimson light.

Amazement aside, none of the enemies were defeated by the defensive maneuver, and there were far too many Menos Grande surrounding them now. One of the Gillian suddenly lurched out to try to bite her, and she managed to speed out of its way and fire a Shakkaho at point blank range. The explosive heat was enough to knock the hollow back and create a large burn against its mask, but it was just a small feat.

She produced the same attack several more times against the faces and bodies of the Gillian, while the Guardian dueled against Ashido. She weaved two Kido together, a trap the moment that one of them tried to activate a Cero, all while flashing in and out of danger with her speed. She wished she had Tobiume so much.

Ashido was having a rough time of it, having fought the Adjuchas several times in the past and never managing to win. The moment that his face mask snapped in half with the force of the Guardian's fist, Ashido retaliated, his spiritual pressure rising. In seconds, he cut off the hollow's tail, and it screamed in anger.  **"You're not going to beat me! I'll have my spot in the Esapda, no matter what!"**

A Cero formed around its mouth, much more powerful and dense than the Gillian before. Instantly, Momo's trap activated, a powerful combination of a barrier spell and Tenran. The huge vortex of wind pushed the barrier toward the Adjuchas's mouth, and the barrier smacked against the hollow's torso and caused the Cero to explode right in front of him, knocking both Ashido and the Adjuchas backwards.

 **"Hado Number Thirty-three: Sokatsui!"** A current of blue fire left her hands, enveloping the hollow and an entire area fifteen feet around his body. As it settled down, Ashido jumped onto the hollow's chest and suddenly stabbed into the monster's neck, cutting upward with enough force to slice through the mask. The hollow dematerialized, not even having enough time to scream in pain.

Ashido grabbed the sword on the ground, throwing it toward Momo. She caught it, admiring the feeling of Tobiume in her hands, before releasing it and throwing the most powerful destructive pink blast of energy she could muster in the general direction of the Gillian in front of her, blocking their path back to Ashido's cavern.

The two of them moved wordlessly through the smoke cloud, and Momo cast a simple cloaking spell to confuse their potential pursuers. They needed to get back to Ashido's base so they could figure out the next move.

The moment she found herself around the campfire, she sighed, not sheathing her blade just yet. She stared at is sealed form, glad to have it back. She had been missing it for far too long, and Tobiume was so glad to be connected to her mindscape again.

Ashido's face was uncovered, and he was holding the broken pieces of what used to be the gazelle-like mask. He wiped at his eyes before setting the shards down on a shelf, and taking off all of his hollow guise. He seemed upset, tearful, and suddenly filled with new purpose.

"It's funny how things go, isn't it?" he asked. "I just lost something that has helped me on my revenge vendetta, and you gained yours back."

Momo smiled. "I guess you're right."

"What are you going to do now?"

"Train. I'm going to train like my life depends on it," she answered. "No, my life  _does_  depend on it. If Aizen is strong enough to make a Vasto Lorde heel, than I need to get stronger than that, or this whole damn thing is for nothing." She considered the Garganta and realized that she also needed to devise a second spell to get back, and while she wasn't sure if she had the time to actually accomplish it, she was already going through the process in her mind.

Kano paced the room for a moment, before removing the fur coat around his neck and setting it on the ground. "Okay. Then I'm going to help you. And then, when you're ready to go to Las Noches, I'm coming with you."

"But what about your goal?" she asked, surprised he would abandon his mission to keep as many low-level hollows and Gillian from reaching the World of the Living.

He stared at the mask in the wall solemnly. "If Aizen has subjugated the most powerful of hollows in Hueco Mundo, to pose a threat to the World of the Living and the Soul Society, then I know where I can finish getting my revenge."

* * *

When Hanabi awoke, she couldn't see from her left eye. There was some kind of liquid running down her face, a warm liquid that tasted like blood. It took her another few seconds to realize that that eye had been removed.

Why was she alive then? Why did she have to endure the hell hole of having one eye removed? She tried to activate her one remaining Byakugan, to see the room better, but for some reason, she couldn't. She would have to settle.

From what she could tell, she was lying bound against a wall in a room with an odd hole in the wall, ringed with kanji-like runes. The space inside of it seemed to ripple with white energy, nearly pulsing as mist gathered around it. The only other thing in the room was a familiar man standing there in dark armor, holding a bandage to the left side of his face. His Byakugan was a dead giveaway, even if she had never seen him before.

"You steal my daughter's eye before finishing her off, and then you have the  _audacity_  to steal mine?"

The samurai bent down to look at her. "Don't worry, I'll finish you off soon, and you won't be able to complain. I should probably take your other eye as well."

She wished she could struggle and get free. If she could, all she'd have to do is hit him once in a certain place, and he'd never form chakra again.

"What are you planning to do? Why take my eye? Why go after that girl?"

"To better see and serve my Lord," the man said, grinning sadistically. "And to spread my power to the ends of the earth and far beyond, to greater worlds than our own." He glanced at the hole in the wall. "I've already sent several of my subordinates to ensure my position, so that I may be rewarded with power beyond my wildest dreams."

"You already have everyone under your heel with your army of monsters," she explained. "And you have the Yonbi sealed inside your body already. Don't you have enough power?"

He shook his head. "Of course not. I'll never have enough. Not until I get my Lord's greatest reward! If that means taking three of the nine Bijuu for myself, then I'll do it. I'll be the most powerful human in the world!"

Hanabi wanted to kill him. She wanted to strike him dead right then, right there. She wanted to steal back the eyes that belonged to her and her Clan. "You'll be hardly human at that point, controlling an army of creatures that most cannot even see. You're the most underhanded, vile _thing_  I've ever met."

He just laughed and did not say anything at all, before leaving the room through a door located to her right. She wished she knew where she was and had some way of contacting them. Some part of her wished that she could just die already, just to end the pain throbbing in her head and missing eye. She continually had to spit the metallic liquid from her mouth, and she had to fight the urge to vomit.

Hanabi steeled herself, realizing that she couldn't allow herself to become that weak. For whatever reason, she was still alive. And until she died, she wasn't going to give up. That was her shinobi way, after all.

* * *

Naruto was very glad to finally drop the act and dispel his clones. He hated the very notion that it was making him weak to sustain that many transformed clones at once, when he could have created dozens of crewmen for a giant warship if he had wanted back in his shinobi glory days.

Both of them realized very quickly that Lord Genisuke's reach hit even the Hidden Mist Village, despite the seas that separated it from the mainland. Some citizens acted as though it didn't bother them, but hearing children ask their parents if something unseen was going to snatch them out of the sky and devour them was enlightening.

"How could he be so cruel?" asked Tatsuki from the rundown inn, her voice low to avoid attention. "He's scared everyone into submission."

Naruto agreed. "Fear is effective. Evil, but effective. Regimes all around the world do the same thing in different ways. If the Soul Society was in the wrong hands, it would be easy to create peace through fear. 99.9% of people wouldn't even be able to see us coming, and a few choice changes to global politics would put everyone under our heel."

Tatsuki seemed amazed by that, like she had never thought of it that way. "It's scary to see that line and know that it's possible to cross it."

"That would never happen, so long as people like Head Captain Yamamoto are in charge. He has a very firm and stubborn sense of justice, and the ideology of Seireitei is generally modeled after him. It's not often that someone like Aizen comes along and shakes the foundation of the system." Naruto thought of Temari and wondered why someone like her would join him; while he had not gotten along with her very well, he would never imagine she would ever go along with someone like Aizen.

"I guess that's both the good thing and the bad thing about how long shinigami live," Tatsuki added. "It takes far too long for the society built around it to change, and it gives guys like Aizen time to plan."

Naruto stared at her blankly, in awe of what she had just said. It was one of the smartest, most perceptive things he had heard in a long time, and it made his mind spin.

"What?"

He just shook it off. "Nothing. You just... you're right."

How does anything ever actually happen outside of the routine in the Soul Society? Where does the motivation come from to keep going, if everything stays the same for decades, if not centuries? The SRDI was the only driving force toward a modern age, adapting bits of the modern world like computers and twisting them to their liking. And even then, that only happens because of humanity's improvements. The most interesting thing to happen to Soul Society in the last several decades was Ichigo Kurosaki and the Ryoka's mission to save Rukia Kuchiki, and through their tenacity, several shinigami began to aid them, rebelling against the traditional ways.

 _It's the human factor..._ Naruto realized. Living, breathing humans have such short lives, and when they manage to interact with the Soul Society, they leave big currents.  _When was the last time that a human like Ichigo Kurosaki inspired so much change?_  "You just blew my mind, and you're an outsider to all of this. How'd you know that?"

She just shrugged. "I don't know. Common sense, I guess." She looked around for a moment, before turning the conversation back to Genisuke. "So how are we going to find him? Do you think he has a base somewhere near here? If so, we need to get moving and save Hanabi before something happens to her."

Naruto nodded, but before anything could happen, something suddenly caught his attention in his mind. "Wait here a second. Something... something's happening." He left the room before she could argue, and Naruto tried to figure it out, standing in the alleyway near the inn, on the dreary city street.

 _"Um... hello?"_  the voice said, and Naruto recognized it immediately.

"Shikamaru!"

 _"Good, you're in my range,"_  Shikamaru said through their connection. Naruto assumed he was using an advanced form of Tenteikura to speak to him.  _"There's a lot we need to talk about. I really need to get you a Soul Phone, so I don't have to adapt so much Kido. I'm not as good at as you are, you know. Where are you right now?"_

"The Hidden Mist Village," he explained, wondering if Shikamaru even had any idea where that was on a map. "You?"

 _"In the Land of Wind. Naruto, you need to go these coordinates as soon as possible; you're really close to them as it is."_  He told Naruto where to go, and it was close.

"What's going on?"

 _"I've figured out where the sekkisekki is coming from. Located all across the Elemental Nations, there are several shrines to a ritual chaos god known as Jashin,"_  explained Shikamaru.  _"There's some kind of spiritual power sealed inside of them, and this power is leaking out and feeding the sekkisekki. Tenten, Samui, and I have already sealed one of them in the Land of Lightning, and the atmosphere is already clearing up near there."_

"This place has one of the shrines?"

_"Yes. You need to seal them within a high-level absorption barrier, so that it will use the spiritual power leaking from inside to power the barrier itself, to keep it self-sustaining. The connection anchoring the sekkisekki to the physical world will disappear."_

Naruto noted which spell to use from memory. "Okay. I can handle it. Do you still suspect that Aizen is involved?"

_"Maybe. Samui seems to think a samurai lord could be involved as well, someone who-"_

"Genisuke?" Naruto felt his anger rising at the possibility that Aizen and this bastard could all be linked together.

_"Yes, how'd you know?"_

Naruto gave him the short version of everything that had happened with Tatsuki and Hanabi and the hideout in the Land of Fire, as well as his ability to seemingly control hollows.

 _"You've been busy then."_ After a moment, he interrupted Naruto's reply. _"I gotta go. Tenten's spotted the next shrine. Good luck! I'll contact you again."_

* * *

"How does he sound?" asked Tenten.

"Distracted. Guilty. Tired of the drama all around him," Shikamaru finished, letting the spell fade and the connection to disappear. He made a mental note not to get too used to using that spell with such long distances.

Up ahead, the tiny shrine was in the middle of an oasis, water and vegetation surrounding it. It was the same kind of ornate design, a mirage blurring the horizon.

Shikamaru explained Naruto's situation to her. "Then let's get this over with," explained Tenten. "So we can find him and help him save her."

"Definitely the right idea. I wish we could take a break though," he muttered, flashing over to the oasis to begin the sealing process. Tenten joined him, arriving just behind him, and standing there, bored once more.

"Typical," she said, rolling her eyes. "We don't have time to waste."

Shikamaru inspected it once more with the devices he brought with him, taking an air sample and testing for the presence of the spirit-blocking compound. After a few moments of testing, he got a positive read, and it was noticeably less dense than when they started in the Land of Lightning.

The gas must have diffused into the area that they had cleared, making it less noticeable overall. Either way, it was time to get sealing.

He sensed the presence a moment too late, and Tenten moved reflexively fast enough to catch the throwing knife in mid-air, before hurling it back where it came from. He turned around quickly, analyzing the environment.

Ahead of them were two warriors approaching in black and gray matching armor, a man and a woman, and Shikamaru tried to feel for spiritual pressure. They had a moderate amount of reiatsu, enough to be a challenge to them, but their energy reserves were calculated in chakra, not in reiryoku. He assumed that these two were spiritually-aware.

The woman had oddly colored white hair, and based on the amount of kunai she held in both hands, she was the one who had thrown the weapon at him. She had three swords along her back, and another on her side, and there was no telling how many other potential weapons she could be hiding, if she was carrying that many. Her nose was extremely pointy, nearly looking like the beak of a falcon, and he wondered if it had been broken at one point in time.

The man was skinny, so skinny that it didn't make any sense for him to be wearing that kind of armor. It looked baggy on him somehow, hanging in odd places. He had no visible weapons, but his hair was the exact same shade and the same ponytail that he always wore. A scar ran across the right side of his face, running all the way up to the top of his forehead.

It was clear to both Shikamaru and Tenten that these two were samurai from Genisuke's forces. There was an odd rippling effect behind them that was slowly disappearing the longer they were standing there.

"Who are you supposed to be?" asked Tenten. "Do you carry an entire armory with you, woman? I'd have to admire your style."

"Does it really matter who we are?" the man asked, completely and totally over everything. "I really don't want to be here right now, so if you two could hurry up and die, that would be awesome."

Tenten smirked with realization. "I swear, he could be a clone of you, Nara."

The man's eyes widened. "How do you know my clan name?"

Shikamaru couldn't believe what he was hearing. This guy was a member of the same clan as him. It was the only explanation. Why was someone who was supposed to be a shinobi a member of the samurai? He didn't want to jump to conclusions, but did this mean that his clan had supported the Land of Iron's takeover?

"Because I'm a Nara as well," he finally said, putting away the small sampling device into a pocket of his uniform. "This is just troublesome."

The woman suddenly started laughing. "I guess that runs in the family, eh, Shintarou?"

"Shut up, Wakana. Let's just kill these guys so the boss doesn't lose another control shrine."

Shikamaru glanced at Tenten. "Control shrine?"

Instantly, the woman hurled one handful of shuriken in their direction.  **"Yin-Style: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"** With a simple hand-sign, the handful of deadly projectiles suddenly multiplied to dozens of oncoming projectiles, cloaked in yin chakra. If the attack hit, it would do far too much damage for either of their tastes.

Both shinigami did the same move, jumping into the air and using Shunpo to evade the massive amount of projectiles at the last possible second, before stopping fifty feet in the air and standing over them.

"Geez, what will this guy know?" asked Tenten. "Do you remember what Naruto has told us over the years?"

"The Nara clan specializes in shadows and binding techniques," explained Shikamaru. "You're going to want to avoid letting his shadow touch yours. If you can, get Wakana away from here so that you can take her down without getting into Shintarou's range."

"Well that's downright tricky as hell," Tenten shouted, before diving at the enemy with her weapon drawn in front of her. She aimed for a powerful downward slash that would completely bifurcate the samurai, using her reiatsu to enhance the attack and cut through her armor, but when the woman suddenly drew twin blades and halted the attack, Tenten's chest received a slash from the woman's extra reach with her chakra.

Tenten used her forward momentum to swing outward with a kick, managing to knock the woman completely sideways and skip across two huge sand dunes like a skipping stone on a lake. There was enough reiatsu in that kick that Sakura would be proud of her.

Shikamaru, meanwhile, did not leave the air. He was trying to analyze all the different scenarios he could, knowing where the man's target would be so far behind and beneath him, due to the angle of the sun. "Chances are, you can't hit my shadow from where it is, way over there. And even if you could, I don't think you'd be able to stop me."

Shintarou didn't move. "I know you're from my clan, but do you really think that is all I can do? Stop you from moving with your shadow?" He blurred his fingers together, ending with a familiar hand-sign.  **"Shadow Stitching Jutsu!"**

The man's shadow suddenly extended like a snake, and the moment that it touched the shadow of the particularly large dune ahead of him, the entire dune's shadow started to rise up in needle-like tendrils, reaching for him high in the sky.

Shikamaru jumped higher, moving back and out of its reach, but he didn't notice the second snaking shadow, branching off to hit another dune's shadow and angling toward the first. The moment the two stretching shadows' angles hit, like an archway made of black ink, they expanded suddenly and hit twice as fast, threatening to hit Shikamaru in mid-air.

 **"Bakudo Number Thirty-nine: Enkosen!"**  The whirling barrier spread out in front of him, but the attacks bled around the barrier, and he was hit several times, stopping him in mid-air and causing him to bleed profusely from several vital spots. He had to fight through the pain, trying to cancel it out in his head. The entire attack must have stretched over one hundred feet in the air, and the impressive display must have taken quite a bit of energy.

Shintarou made another seal, and the needles left his body, suddenly molding into the Shadow Possession Jutsu, connecting instantly with the shadow on the ground, and forcing him to fall to the ground slowly. Shikamaru cursed his luck, realizing that he hadn't expected this, based on what little he knew of the man's true techniques. Naruto must have never know about this.

"I've got you," Shintarou said, his hands leaving the seal as he knew their shadows were connected. He began to walk forward, forcing Shikamaru to walk toward him as well, and the shinigami imagined that that made using the jutsu much less exhausting. Blood was still pouring from several places on Shikamaru's torso and arms, and it was getting harder and harder to concentrate. Within a few moments, the two were standing in front of each other in front of the lake.

"Yeah, you got me," he said, focusing on his opponent and Tenten's fight.

The woman seemed, oddly enough, to be as skilled as Tenten was. Her versatility with so many different blades of varying lengths seemed to be a problem. Tenten had to adjust her strategy constantly as Wakana alternated her weapons, and it was enough to throw her off.

"Oh, come on, can't you guys be more straight forward and stop being underhanded?" Tenten asked, using a feint to the right and then switching to a stab from the left in one fluid motion. When her attack found purchase, Wakana winced and tried to recoil away from it, but Tenten wasn't going to have that.

She rushed the samurai, attacking more viciously in a flurry of strikes, each more powerful than the last. More and more of her reiatsu flooded the air, nearly forcing the woman to her knees. "Stay down and I'll kill you quickly!"

The woman's right hand suddenly dropped her katana and slapped Tenten's thigh. The moment that she saw the paper tag, Tenten knew it couldn't be good. In another moment, it exploded, rocketing her backwards through a cloud of smoke. She landed at the edge of the oasis, clutching her very wounded leg.

"Tenten!" shouted Shikamaru upon seeing his bleeding friend.

The Squad Eleven Fourth Seat had barely managed to compensate by increasing her reiatsu on her leg, creating a form of defense that only partially worked. Wakana was amazed as the shinigami stood to her feet, clutching her blade with two hands.  **"Transform, Yukai Datsu!"**

Her blade melted in a glow of white light, increasing her reiatsu. The liquid metal hovered near her sword hilt in a blob, and she didn't utilize the move just yet. "I'm actually surprised that you forced me to use my Shikai, but there is zero chance that you'll survive now." The shinigami's zanpakutou shifted, becoming a double-bladed staff with increased density and sharpness. "I can control every single property of my weapon, and change it into whatever weapon I want it to be. I can give it an edge that can cut through diamond if I want!"

She leaped toward the enemy, who tried to counter by throwing another barrage of cloned shuriken. Tenten revolved the staff around in front of her as she fell toward her enemy, cutting through the projectiles and deflecting them.

Wakana barely managed to get out of the way as the staff collided with the ground where she stood, cutting through the sand like it was made of butter. Tenten didn't let her recover, melting Yukai Datsu again and transforming it into a European broadsword. The instant that the sword collided with the samurai's armor, it sliced through the material like there was nothing there, rending flesh and bone. Wakana opened her mouth to say something, but ended up coughing up blood.

Shikamaru was glad that battle was over, but Shintarou was far too unmotivated and captivated by his teammate's battle. The instant that he refocused on Shikamaru, his jutsu faded as he ran out of usable time.

"I figured that would happen. I'll show you who is better at using shadows in battle," the shinigami stated, reaching for his own weapon.  **"Split, Kakusayami!"**  His zanpakutou dropped into his shadow and instantly reformed into a shadow warrior, complete with his own katana-like sword made of darkness. He dropped back a little bit, sending his shikai forward.

Shintarou was unable to compensate, having to evade the attacks to the best of his ability. He tried once to use his Shadow Possession Jutsu again, but it didn't hold his shikai down.

"How can your shadows affect something that is a shadow itself?"

The samurai tried to get out of harm's way, but nothing worked. He gestured suddenly to the shrine, and from it rose several hollows, all screaming for blood in unison. Shikamaru's zanpakutou managed to strike through the samurai once, a killing blow, before Tenten joined his side to protect against the hollows.

"Okay, so I think we know where the control is coming from," Tenten said, and every few seconds, more hollows were pouring from the shrine. "The shrines are the key to Genisuke's power, and we know they are related now for sure."

"Yeah. We just have to seal that shrine." His shadow warrior stepped in front of him. He pulled out the Soul Phone while he had a moment, sending a message to Samui to let her know that someone could be coming for it.

"Easier said than done." Shikamaru suddenly called a low-level Bakudo, entrapping the entire crowd of hollows for a few seconds, and she grinned, getting to work.

* * *

Samui both liked and disliked her gigai, for different reasons. On the positive side, she was allowed to interact with Jin and the other members of her former home. On the other side of the coin, she felt powerless without her zanpakutou in a false body.

Jin was definitely one of the most interesting people she had met in a long time. She had so many stories in her, so many things she told her about the Fourth Shinobi World War, where Samui had died. Jin detailed small personality traits and quirks that her old team possessed, and said that she was famous for always saying that things were "cool."

"Any chance the shrine is somewhere close?" Jin asked. "I've never been, but there are some really eccentric people who visit these places and worship some god I've never heard of. He's really popular in the Hidden Hot Water Village."

Samui wanted to laugh at the name. "Let me guess: they are famous for some kind of hot spring."

The red-headed girl grinned. "Yeah. But they are more famous because that's where the Akatsuki member Hidan was from. While no one from the Hidden Cloud ever faced him personally, we heard stories in the war about his supposed immortality. They say he's still alive out there, somewhere."

"I doubt he's immortal," the shinigami stated. "If everything goes positively, I could live to be thousands of years old. Is this guy still running around somewhere, the only Akatsuki member left?"

Jin shook her head. "I don't know how they managed to take him out, but some jonin from the Hidden Leaf's Sarutobi Clan got him after he lost his student."

Samui didn't know what to believe. She imagined that if you cut off someone's head, they'd be dead.

The pair of women finally made it to the location of the sealed shrine. The kanji for lightning ran across its surface. Samui could see what Jin couldn't: a mutli-layered Kido barrier made of green light surrounded the ceremonial altar, and the entire defense seemed to glow with satisfaction.

"It's already sealed off?" Jin questioned, not sure of anything at the moment. Samui explained what Shikamaru had done.

"I'm here to make sure that it stays that way. Shikamaru and Tenten are fighting off samurai at another one of these locations," she explained. "You really should go back to the village though! I don't want you to get hurt if something comes for it!"

Jin shook her head, putting a hand on the hilt of her sword for emphasis. "No. I'm going to stay and help if I can. The enemies aren't spirits, so I can fight them too."

Samui frowned. "I can't stay in my gigai though, so you won't be able to see me. I'll use gikongan to exit my body, but that won't be me. Just an artificial soul." To demonstrate, she popped a pill and immediately became a shinigami again, her gigai operated by Pupples, the dog gikon.

Pupples, in her body, was very loyal and looked to her for guidance immediately. Even Jin seemed to notice the posture change, as though Samui's body language immediately changed.

"Pupples, I want you to stay back, but communicate my words to Jin, if something needs to be said, like a warning or something," she explained, and then lowered her voice, even though Jin couldn't hear her. "Protect her with your life if you must."

The soul agreed without question, and she was glad she brought him along. Other gikon got on her nerves so much, usually having some kind of odd quirk that set them apart. Pupples was energetic but loyal, so so loyal. She supposed the fact that Chappy was more popular than Pupples was because Chappy has a cuter container, at least in the view of the Shinigami Women's Association.

Jin waited by the shrine, prepared at any moment to move quickly. Samui was actually quite interested in seeing the red-haired woman fight. She wanted to know if Jin was worthy of being the daughter of the former Raikage.

Within seconds, a white, swirling ripple opened before them, and two samurai appeared from what could only be called a portal. It had seemed to come out of nowhere, and Jin cursed. "Damn that ability."

Samui wondered why it was so similar to a Senkaimon. She supposed it was possible that Genisuke's forces could have a portal-like spiritual ability, considering their fascination with the shrines.

The man on the right was huge, easily over six feet tall with the muscle mass to make up for it. His face was scrunched together awkwardly, and he had spiky black hair. He carried a yellow-tassled naginata with a black and silver theme, to match the armor he wore. Samui knew he was physically strong, and she wondered if he was a brutish fighter, like a berserker with that naginata.

The woman on the left had long, slightly curly auburn hair, and a slightly thick figure behind all of that armor. Her katana's hilt was slightly green, the tassle to match, with white accents. If she had to peg her money on it, the stronger opponent of the two was the man.

"Figures that they'd think ahead and guard the shrine," the woman muttered. The man didn't say anything, and based on their behavior, he wasn't expected to.

Samui was actually hoping that they couldn't see her, but of course, there's no way she'd get that lucky.

"They don't have Byakugan," Jin said in Samui's general direction, on the right side of the shrine and its barriers. "They probably can't see you."

Samui took advantage of that fact, moving faster than she had in a long time with Shunpo. She had hoped to handle this quickly enough that they could just hang out, and she aimed for the larger man, thinking he'd be slower.

She was, of course, wrong, and the naginata collided with her zanpakutou in a burst of reiatsu on both parties, the wind picking up around them. She could feel the energy flowing around his spear, and the tricky way that the samurai could use chakra was annoying as hell.

"You really think Jashin would allow us to go without being able to see his works for ourselves?" asked the woman. "We don't need the Byakugan, because Lord Genisuke has helped us see the Light of Jashin!"

"You sound like a crazy cult," Samui said, trying to put pressure on the naginata and force it from the huge man's hands.

 **"Cloud-Style: Flame Beheading!"**  The shinobi jumped toward the male samurai, swinging her blade in a true horizontal arc imbued with fire, directly at the enemy. The intense red flames grew into a crescent of heat, heading toward the two warriors locked in combat.

The shinigami caught the memo, disappearing with Shunpo and aiming right for the other opponent. She did not look back as Jin's attack ended, flames raising around the large man in a huge circle that slowly threatened to enclose around him and burn him alive.

The auburn-haired samurai did not draw her sword, instead moving through hand-signs and summoning her chakra.  **"Lightning-Style: Plasma Ball!"**  Instantly, a current of blue-purple electricity sparked to life around her body, forming a sphere of flickering power. It happened fast enough that Samui could not divert her attack, her sword immediately becoming a huge conductor as it tried to pass through the defense.

The power coursed through her body, and she screamed and dropped her sword in agony. The smell of burnt flesh was suddenly in her nose, and she looked down at her scorched right hand. She realized that it would be difficult to hold a sword, but she couldn't let this opportunity slip away.

"I learned this move from studying some of the ninjutsu that that Cloud woman's village uses, and the legend of the Fourth Raikage's Lariat!" The sphere of electricity dissipated, and the red-headed woman finally drew her sword, preparing to finish her off. "Shinigami... you'll pay for interfering with the will of Jashin!"

Jin watched as the samurai woman was undoubtedly standing over Samui, she just wished she could see what the attack had done.

Her own opponent wielded his weapon with powerful physical strength, and she was having a difficult time actually managing to defeat him. The instant that she had the chance, she tried a quick series of hand-signs, ending in the Tiger seal.  **"Fire-Style: Flame Bullet!"** A high-speed version of the Uchiha Clan's specialty jutsu headed right for the large man, far too fast and too close up to actually miss.

She knew she had him, and without further ado, she dashed toward the other enemy, her sword raised in preparation. "So you want to play now, shinobi? You might want to check your opponent Goro first!"

Pupples shouted, "Jin! Behind you!"

Jin jumped out of the way just in time to avoid getting speared through the back by the full range of the naginata. "How are you standing?!"

The samurai named Goro had not been harmed at all by the attack, one of her strongest offensive maneuvers. "You think I'd let myself lose to someone who uses Fire-Style? Let me show you the extent of how I survived!" He rushed in and she threw up her blade in preparation.  **"Water-Style: Tearing Torrent!"**

Water left his mouth, immediately surrounding his left hand and twisting in a whirlpool of power that expanded to be nearly half his size. He threw out his hand, the jutsu firing off toward her.

The torrent of swirling water, a vortex of power, collided with Jin's body. The woman couldn't hold up and was thrown from where she stood, landing thirty meters away.

"Amaya, I'll assist you!" the brutish man said, but the red-headed samurai refused.

Samui realized that her own opponent was just enjoying herself far too much, and she knew it was time to make her move. It would take a hell of a lot more than any of that to bring her down, even if her hand felt like it had lost every layer of skin. Using her zanpakutou was going to be difficult, but she had to get it back first.

"Oh, you've got some fight back in your spirit, huh?" Amaya chuckled. "It's pointless. I won't let you get the better of me like that other blonde shinigami the other day!"

 _Blonde shinigami?_ Samui only knew of one shinigami that the samurai could be referring to, and that was Naruto. Shikamaru had mentioned that Naruto should be here in the Elemental Nations right now, so she wondered if they would meet. "Heh. I wonder why Naruto didn't kill you?"

"He wouldn't be able to if he tried! We are fueled by our acceptance of Jashin, and he will help us through any tribulation!"

"He sounds like some kind of god," Samui challenged, getting ready to use her high-speed to grab her sword and show her what real lightning can do.

The woman nodded. "Of course, he is! You wouldn't understand! You consider yourselves the gods of death! Why would you need any faith, when there is no one above you to fear?"

Samui had never given much thought of faith, but she was having a hard time believing that there was some kind of god out there with any real power. Especially one who interacts with humans enough to give them any kind of abilities. "Yeah, I honestly don't care who your god is. He has no authority here!"

Punctuated by the last word, she used Shunpo to appear behind Amaya, grabbing her sword from the ground. "I'll show you what real authority is!  **Strike, Inabikari!"** In a pulse of glowing reiatsu, her sword split into two blades, shortening only slightly and moving into a shape the resembled a bolt of lightning, the sharp horizontal angle acting as a guard.

The power rolling off of her was enough to cause all three of them to look in her direction, and even Jin seemed to be able to feel it, somehow getting up after being launched by that jutsu. Samui's shikai release was not quite as flashy or powerful, but her reiatsu was high enough to get their attention.

Jin managed to use their momentary distraction to jump forward, her sword doused in flames.  **"Cloud-Style: Flame Beheading!"** She tried the attack again, this time with a distracted opponent, and the intensity of the arc of flames, this time vertical, was nearly strong enough to burn even her. Goro turned around in time.

 **"Water-Style: Water Wall!"** He didn't put much power into it, but it managed to stop the oncoming flames with a cloud of steam left over that dissipated rather quickly. But the samurai didn't stop, suddenly running toward her and swinging the naginata.

She deflected it, before running her sword down the length and managing to slash at the front of Goro's armor, leaving a large open area. She tried to swing at the same place again, this time with all the heat and fire she could muster on the blade, but Goro suddenly yanked back his weapon and slashed against the back of her shoulder.

Jin cried out, trying to ignore it and the internal bruising from his first Water-Style jutsu, and wishing that it wasn't suddenly so painful to close her left fist. She wouldn't be able to use hand-signs as effectively, she so decided to go for broke.

"You know, I learned something from a Raikage as well," she explained, gesturing to the female samurai that was currently trying to dodge Samui's shikai's electrical attacks.  **"Cloak of Fire!"**

Instantly, her chakra shot out of her body and transformed into fire, completely surrounding her with all the heat she could muster. The aura transformed her hair into a waving mess, her dark skin looking absolutely awesome in the inferno surrounding her.

She wished she could capture the image of shock on Goro and the samurai woman's face. "Impossible! The Fifth Raikage was the only person who could possibly learn that jutsu!"

"Yeah? Well, my mom passed it down to me!" She immediately rushed forward, her speed and power enhanced far beyond the limits her human body could take on its own. The pure force of her heat was enough to destroy what was around her, and she raised her blade, so superheated that it looked like she was carrying a blade of dark red light.  **"Corona Slash!"**

Jin aimed the sword for the man's torso, moving at literal blazing speed. He tried frantically to throw up another Water Wall, to try to put them out, but her fire was so hot it evaporated before it even took shape. The instant that the sword collided with the armor, it slashed through all the flesh and bone like a knife through hot butter, instantly cauterizing the two halves left over.

Goro's face was one of terror, lying on the ground below. She dropped to her knees and let go of her control of her chakra aura. It had taken so much control that she was actually afraid that she might pass out from the exhaustion of it.

"Goro! No!" the woman shouted, trying to run over to help him, if she could. The shinigami immediately pressed the fight, slamming against the woman's reflexive defensive move. Both blades of Inabikari were nearly touching, and she knew she had her right where she wanted.

As Amaya activated her Plasma Ball defense, which Samui's lower half was in the direct range of, and her swords in the conduction of, the shinigami connected the blades, sparking the air and igniting her electrical attack.

Yellow lightning spread through Samui's humidified air colliding with the blue current of the Plasma Ball and even bypassing it, attacking the woman directly. The samurai screamed as the nigh-instantaneous attack ran through her entire body, burning every nerve and hitting every major organ, and the effect lasting for only a second.

"I've never faced an enemy that uses lightning before, like myself. I guess my shikai makes me immune to its effects." Samui jumped back and prepared to hit her again, holding her swords mere centimeters apart. "Tell me where Genisuke's base is, and I'll let you live!"

Amaya just laughed, before snapping her fingers once, shouting something unintelligible. Samui clapped her dual zanpakutou together, another course of electricity flowing through the samurai's veins, killing her instantly.

Without warning, the shrine started to vibrate, the reiatsu surrounding it suddenly tripling in power. She could see its source start to flow out and into the space that Shikamaru's barriers protected. Creatures with dark skin and white masks, all of different shapes and sizes, started to overflow the barrier. The minute she realized that those were hollows, she looked at Pupples, her gigai.

"Get Jin out of here!"

The gigai nodded, picking the shinobi and her sword up, before running to the Hidden Cloud Village.

Samui stood at the ready, having already gathered as much humidified air around the barrier's space as possible. If the multi-layer barrier failed, she would flood the area in an instant with her electric attack and kill them all at the same time. She took a deep breath, and the barrier shattered into pieces.

The moment that the surge of lightning hit the contingent of monsters, the shrine exploded and the force sent an unconscious Samui flying off the mountain and into the open air.


	29. Seal the Deal

Naruto could tell that Tatsuki was having a difficult time remembering all of the details of what they were going to have to do, but they were almost there. He'd have to make it short and sweet.

"Lord Genisuke's shrine is here, on this island. This island also corresponds with one of the two remaining Bijuu signals I've found," explained Naruto. "If we're lucky, Genisuke will be here with Hanabi, and not all the way on the other side of the country in the Land of Earth."

"Because Genisuke has the Yonbi." She didn't say it as a question. "How bad could that be?"

"It really depends on how well he can use it," explained Naruto. "If he has full control, and the Byakugan, then we're going to have a hard time finding an opening against him. He'll transform fully into the ape and I'll have to fight it."

" _We'll_  have to fight it."

Naruto shook his head, continuing his foray through the trees. "I'm experienced at fighting against jinchuuriki. You're not. Chances are, you'll have to watch my back and fight the hollows that he'll spam at us. I can only handle so many."

Tatsuki nodded. "All right, if you say so. But if I get a chance, I'm going to-"

"No. You aren't. This guy could be seriously difficult to deal with," he explained. "I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to go all out without affecting the population. It's one the reasons why I hope that I'll fight him here, because my spiritual pressure could hurt the people around me." He didn't have to add the next bit. Tatsuki knew it could hurt her too. "I might have to fight him with a handicap, and I don't want to have to worry about you too."

"Can't you fight him as a shinobi?" asked Tatsuki.

"If I had several weeks of preparation to get my strength and reserves back to the way they were, I'd probably be able to do that. But against this guy, I can't risk it. Even without the Yonbi, he has an army of hollows at his command and he can make them appear at any time."

"How is that possible anyway?"

He had no answers, but he definitely knew he would find out. They didn't say anything for a long time, and Naruto tried to keep his mind open for any spiritual pressure changes around him. Despite that, he was thinking of Momo and of the Soul Society, as well as his friends who were here now, helping him rid the Elemental Nations of someone who didn't deserve to be in control.

"Are you still working on that new technique?"

Tatsuki nodded, showing him the rock that she ground into dust with only her chakra. It took mere moments and showed how far she had come. "Yeah. I've got all the properties memorized."

"If you get good enough at it, you won't need the Hidden Mole Jutsu to use it," he explained.

"I'm already thinking about all the possibilities," she explained. "I've already got one offensive jutsu down, so this should be good to use with that."

Naruto nodded, glad that she was training so quickly. She had been meditating constantly, working on both her ability to sense reiatsu and her ability to harness her chakra. Her control was still only average, but it was more than he could say for himself a long time ago. Her physical training was outstanding, so she had a huge base to work from to get better and better at using her spiritual training as well.

Her growth rate was high, and he wondered if this was because of Ichigo's influence. She became spiritually aware because of Ichigo's overflowing reiatsu, and in just a few days' time, she was probably very close to Chunin-level, if he had to put a finger on it. With the Nanabi, she'd probably surpass even that level, but Naruto had all but forbidden her from using it.

He had guessed that learning to work with the Bijuu was the best way to handle it, to sort of create an inner rapport that she could harness. Naruto had already created a similar situation with the Kyuubi, but he only had mastered three tails.

 _Any chance you'd help me get more of those tails of yours?_ He asked the beast inside.

The Kyuubi didn't say anything for a long moment.  **You'll have to work much harder to make me submit, shinigami. You're lucky to have some modicum of control over my power.**

_And here I thought we were starting to become allies._

**Let's just say that I hate you a little bit less than before.**

_When did that change?_

**When you took initiative and used my power to try to kill Aizen on Sokyoku Hill. He reminds me too much of that bastard, Madara Uchiha. I don't like being used like this any more than you like using me, but I say we have a common enemy. Those fucking illusions...**

Naruto had to agree with the fox there, although the only thing he knew about Madara was that he was involved with the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

 **It's not important who he is now,**  the fox explained.  **The fucker had to die twice before he finally stayed put. But he's gone now.**

Naruto wanted to ask him who did kill him, and how he somehow had two lives, but the Kyuubi fell silent.

"Look! Up ahead!" Tatsuki was pointing at the shrine just over a ridge, and Naruto gave her a quick look that said, "Shut the hell up." She clamped her jaw shut and followed Naruto to the tree line, where they hid and watched the shrine to Jashin.

The area seemed empty, the place unguarded. It was on a cove near the beach of the relatively small island, and there was no sign of any kind of hideout at all. If the locals of the Hidden Mist thought that Genisuke had a base somewhere nearby, they were wrong. Unless not everything here was at it seemed.

"Try to look for a secret entrance," said Naruto. "We're about to head up there, but you're going to hold back and watch from up here." She looked like she was going to complain, but he cut her off. "Remember to meditate to control your senses. You need to be aware of everything around you, in case something happens."

Tatsuki nodded finally, after a moment of annoyance. "All right. But I'm going to help if I get the chance."

"If you get the chance, great. If we're lucky, you won't have to. I can just seal this thing."

"But what about the Bijuu signal nearby?" asked Tatsuki. "Is it going to be Genisuke?"

Naruto was getting very tired of questions that he couldn't answer. "We'll play it by ear. Stay here."

He hurried forward, stretching out the muscles of his gigai and trying to train his body to hone his reflexes. He was so out of practice with hand-signs that he was worried it would be difficult. Either way, he had a few tricks up his sleeve, some old and some new. He wanted to test himself, to cut himself off of his shinigami powers and relearn his shinobi ones. He always learns best and pushes himself best fighting against an enemy, and if he can find ways to incorporate shinobi skills into his repertoire, he might be better suited to handling this war.

When he finally got there, nothing changed. He didn't feel any oncoming enemies or even any allies. Tatsuki was in the back of his mind, but he couldn't help wishing that Shikamaru and the others would show up to help him.

The shrine in front of him matched the description he'd received from the others. The kanji for water was scrawled on its surface. He ran his fingers along the letter, before running through the spells in his mind he would need for sealing it away.

He heard a shout from behind him, and narrowly ducked having his head chopped off with an axe imbued with spirit energy. The girl in front of him, a young girl with dark brown hair in a pony tail, was holding the largest battleaxe he had ever seen, so huge it seemed impossible that she was even holding it.

The axe changed directions to avoid slamming into the shrine, angling right toward his body. Naruto crossed his fingers and created three clones around him. He dashed backwards and winced with the memory pain as one of them burst into smoke from nearly getting split in half. The other two ran directly into the samurai's lower body with their shoulders, knocking them out and throwing her to the ground almost twenty feet away.

Naruto huffed, barely breaking a sweat from the sudden use of chakra. "Who are you guys?"

The other samurai was a blonde man who didn't seem intimidating at all, his body less muscular than his partner, who had a much healthier build. She looked like she was ready to behead an entire army in one swoop, but the man looked like he would have trouble crushing a flower under his weight. Naruto recognized them both during his raid on Genisuke's Land of Fire hideout.

"My name is Yasuo, and this is Bunka."

"I can introduce myself, pansy."

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. The point is that you aren't going to touch that shrine."

Naruto wanted to laugh at him, but he knew it was better not to underestimate people. You never knew what kind of skills that your enemy possesses. He only hoped that Tatsuki would be safe.

"Oh, Naruto, I already know all about your friend," Yasuo said, pointing behind his shoulder. "I could hear her thoughts from a mile away. She's really worried about you now, and very pissed that you aren't letting her help. Inner monologues are really telling."

Bunka spat at the ground beside her, preparing her axe once more. "I don't need to be a mind-reader to know what this guy's thinking: your last thoughts."

 _So he's a Yamanaka,_ Naruto realized, remembering Ino from his childhood. From what he knew, her abilities were like a double-edged sword, and Naruto had to hope that this guy's jutsu had the same disadvantages.

Naruto leaped backwards and threw several kunai, before drawing his own kunai to block her counterattack. Bunka blocked the strikes by covering her front with the large axe, but Naruto used the brief moment where her eyes were covered to throw shuriken at her legs, enhanced by his reiatsu.

To his dismay, she managed to get out of the way of any major damage, the projectiles managing to cut through her armor but only slightly damage the skin.

She was about to gloat, but Naruto had already charged a Rasengan and was aiming it directly toward her body. To his surprise, Yasuo jumped ahead and made a single motion with the flat of his hand, enhanced by his chakra into a blade. He had faced that kind of attack before, but Naruto cancelled the Rasengan and used his forward momentum to spin around and kick Yasuo away with all his might.

Bunka moved in the next instant, and a clone appeared to intercept her attack, using a kunai to defend against the large blade.

"I don't suppose you know any real jutsu, do you?" Naruto muttered, managing to take a short breather with his clone locked in combat with Bunka's giant axe. "You're just a regular gal, a one-trick pony with that axe of yours."

A kick to the groin dispelled the clone, but before anything could happen, something hit on his spiritual senses. He could feel the mass of reiatsu approaching; no, it was closer to a mass of chakra. He had felt that kind of oppressive power before. A Bijuu was approaching.

"I guess we'll have to cut our party short," Naruto deadpanned, seeing the approaching monster coming from the sea. "Now you've gone and made this entirely too complicated. If you'd have just let me seal that shrine away, I could have walked away from this without having to fight the Sanbi at the same damn time. Good job, samurai."

The huge monster immediately burst from the surface of the waves, spraying the beach with waves of water and sand. It roared, more menacing than any hollow he had ever personally faced, before its tails whipped out and tried to attack all three of them at the same time with its spiked tails.

Yasuo managed to get out of the way with his agility, probably trying to prepare some kind of mental jutsu that could take it out. He knew from experience that Yamanaka jutsu did not work on Bijuu or jinchuuriki. The tail narrowly avoided swiping him and throwing him into the air to devour him. "Get out of the way! We need to seal this for Lord Jashin! Get it to the portal!"

Bunka tried to block it with an attack of her own, swinging her axe to disrupt its attack. The creature overpowered her completely, throwing her several yards into the sand away, coral forming around her in her wake.

Naruto tried to get out of the way fast enough, but decided to go for subterfuge. The instant that the spiked appendage hit him, he dispelled to reveal a log, and he was now almost thirty yards away, hoping to move in on the one-eyed turtle. He wasn't going to let them have the creature; he was going to seal it away so that Aizen or anyone else could never use it again for harm against anyone.

He began to charge up his attack, very aware that he only had so much chakra left, before launching himself at the enemy. **"Giant Rasengan!"** The huge mass of swirling blue power made its mark, and the creature screamed in agony at it exploded against its scaly skin.

"Damn it," he swore, realizing that it had done nothing but anger the creature further. It suddenly attacked him with all of its appendages, its chakra creating coral with every swipe of its tails until it looked like he was standing in a forest of ocean spikes.

Naruto ducked and rolled, trying to block its power by using clones and normal Rasengan as a deterrent, but it was not going to work. He used the Body Flicker Jutsu to get away, before popping the pill.

Instantly, he blocked a strike with his zanpakutou, his reiatsu alone enough to stop the creature's attack. He reached out with a free hand and deflated the gigai and placed it back into his shihakusho.

"Now I can get serious," he said, pointing his left hand at the turtle's main body.  **"Hado Number Four: Byakurai!"**

The electric bolt of Kido charged through the monster's hide in a second, piercing the leftmost tail and part of its arm. It howled in agony before its shell stretched to close the wounds. It opened its mouth, suddenly spawning a ball of white fog and spreading it throughout the area.

 **It causes hallucinations. Don't inhale it,**  the fox warned.

 **"Hado Number Fifty-eight: Tenran!"** A wind vortex spun from his palm, before shooting forward into the mist and dispelling it from all angles. As soon as he had cleared a path, he sped through it and caught the creature just before it dove back into the water to catch itself.

**"Bakudo Number Sixty-one: Rikujokoro!"**

* * *

Ashido was perhaps the best swordsman she had ever met and had the privilege of sparring with, his Zanjutsu finesse unparalleled. Only the best of the best in Squad Eleven could equal this man, and it was honestly astounding that a man from the earlier days of Squad Seven could compete with that.

She managed to parry a blow that turned out to only be a quick feint, and in seconds, Momo was on the ground with a bruise forming on her left bicep. They were trying not to maim each other, so each of them were trying to consciously give the other a handicap. Sadly enough, Momo knew she wouldn't have a chance to defeat him on pure zanjutsu skills alone, even if she went all out.

She had always prided herself on her Kido abilities, while lacking significantly in each of the other areas of Zankensoki. She was a master at weaving powerful spells together to create combinations that others would not have ever guessed possible. Aizen had always praised her abilities, believing her to be brilliant enough at Kido alone to merit a lieutenant-level in the Kido Corps. She was confident in her magical prowess, but she hated how weak she was in other areas.

She was terrible with Hakuda and Zanjutsu, and her Shunpo was probably a fourth-seat level, if she had to put a finger on it. But all of her power relied on Kido, and she really hated that, because it took so long to set up some of the time.

"You need to get better," Ashido said, bluntly. "Quite frankly, you're awful. Your zanpakutou's Shikai is a Kido type, but without respecting your sword in Zanjutsu, you cannot reach its full potential."

She nodded, accepting his advice and his hand to get up. "Tobiume has always wanted me to focus on my strengths, and has never pressured me to focus on my weaknesses."

Kano stood there, thinking a moment. "You should always respect your zanpakutou's wishes. But Momo, you've never shown your spirit that your Zanjutsu can _be_  one of your strengths. As a shinigami, knowing the four principles of Zankensoki is paramount. While you don't have to be perfectly balanced, you should at least be average in each of the four areas." He generated an incantation-less Shakkaho, holding the ball of red light over his palm. She could see its lack of quality, too much power for that amount of control. "I can't do much with Kido, but I have had a lot of practice. I've had to in order to survive down here. You should respect your other areas as well, and your zanpakutou will better respect  _you._ "

She nodded, but before she could suggest that they practice again, Momo suddenly felt the inward pulling inside her mind, into her Inner World.

It usually looked like the prettiest meadow she had ever seen, with rolling hills and bright sunlight, warm against her skin and never a single cloud in sight. The flowers were always in bloom, and the single plum tree in the middle of the meadow, on the top of the highest hill, always bore fruit.

But something was wrong. The usually vibrant pink and purple flowers were not showing, their petals closed as though asleep, their leaves having shrunk. There was not a single plum in sight on the tree, and the gentle breeze that usually brushed the leaves had turned more violent. Clouds rolled across the pink-hued sky, blocking the sunlight and making the entire area far too chilly.

Her zanpakutou spirit did not look different, but her demeanor had changed. Her white and blue kimono was tied with a pale yellow belt, the end of it hanging to her knees in front of her. A pink ribbon wrapped around her body and the back of her neck, but never touched her skin, hovering over her. She held one end of it in one hand, and the pronged silver zanpakutou was nowhere in sight. Tobiume's brown hair hung loose in the back, but was tied with two hairpieces to hang on either side of her face, a hair pin on the left side of her head resembling the branch of a tree bearing fruit.

"Tobiume!" Momo greeted, trying to be cheerful despite what she felt about the place's appearance. "Why does it look different?"

 _"Your Inner World reflects the status of your soul, of your heart,"_  explained the spirit.  _"You've fallen into despair and discord. Not a single fruit has appeared on the tree since you found Captain Aizen's body."_

She was disturbed by that fact. "He's not a captain anymore, Tobiume!"

Tobiume frowned.  _"I am you, Momo, and I know you heart more than any single person ever will, Naruto included. In your heart, he is still your captain, and I am not sure if that will ever change."_

She shook her head, not wanting to accept that at all. "You're wrong! He betrayed everyone in his pursuit of power! I don't see him that way anymore!"

Her zanpakutou did not say anything, moving around the plum tree, trying to find a single fruit.  _"It will not change until you allow it to change, until you allow yourself to see him as an enemy and not a friend. You still love him, Momo, and until you can let go of that love, your soul will be in turmoil."_

"I don't love him! How can I, after everything he has done to Naruto and I, and the entire Soul Society? I love Naruto!" She was almost outraged by what her inner world and her zanpakutou were revealing to her.

Tobiume smiled, but she could not read the reason why she smiled.  _"You can love both of them, Momo. Perhaps you love them for different reasons, in different ways, but your love for Captain Aizen is still as vibrant as it was while you were in his direct service."_

Momo couldn't believe it. She literally fell to her knees, trying not to scream in emotional agony at hearing these words. "I... can't. I can't love him! I'll kill him for what he's done! He betrayed me and my trust! He hurt Naruto and tried to turn everyone against him!" She continued to stammer on for several minutes, and her spirit just watched, a single tear forming in Tobiume's eye.

 _"Love is a fickle thing, sweetheart."_ There was no rancor in her words, and Momo wanted to tear out whatever part of her heart and soul was reserved for her feelings for Aizen, whatever they were: romantic, platonic, business, paternal... She didn't care. She wanted it all gone!

"Did you bring me here for that?" asked Momo finally, after another minute of kneeling helpless on the ground.

Tobiume smiled.  _"No. I did not."_  The spirit paused for a moment.  _"I wanted to help you begin the next level of your training, but you aren't ready."_

"What do you mean?" Her mind was aflutter. Her zanpakutou wanted to teach her Bankai, but thought she wasn't ready? Or was there something else that she wanted to teach?

_"You'll know when you are ready. And after I send you back, can you do something about how awful this meadow is? It used to be so beautiful and peaceful when Naruto was around."_

Momo sighed and nodded. "I think it'll be a while before I see Naruto. I was... awful to him in the Soul Society. I should have seen through the deception and trusted him." She swallowed hard. "I don't even want to see him until Aizen is dead and gone. I can't let myself."

 _"Then you need to find some other way to find internal peace,"_  her spirit said.

And with that, she was yanked back into reality, where Ashido was standing there, holding out his sword.

"You ready for another go?" he asked.

Momo nodded, drawing her sword. "Of course." In seconds, the two had clashed once again, Ashido's strike powerful enough to send sparks. Momo was once again astounded by the force and control behind his strikes, always so calculated and strong. She made a commitment to get better, to do better, to restore her Inner World and figure out whatever the hell was wrong with her for still having any kind of emotion but rage for Aizen.

* * *

Tatsuki saw everything fall apart just as quickly as it all began, and while she trusted that Naruto would be all right on his own, there were still several factors to consider. The samurai would still try to attack him when the blonde one finished healed the axe wielder, and she wasn't sure he could hold his own against the monster and the two samurai at the same time.

So she had to make a decision. She raced toward the beach with no regrets, preparing her chakra for a fight. The moment that she had an opening, she aimed a roundhouse kick toward the surprised blonde healer's face.

The woman threw up her axe and deflected the blow with the face of the blade, and Tatsuki used its size against her, jumping off of it and landing far enough away that she could recover.

"You're fighting us, Tatsuki Arisawa?" asked the blonde. "I can tell you right now that that will not end well for you!"

The two samurai raced toward her at the same moment, and she flickered through hand-signs.  **"Earth-Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu!"**

She disappeared into the earth to avoid getting beheaded, before moving through a few more hand-signs.  **"Earth-Style: Underground Shark Jutsu!"** Her chakra suddenly caused the ground all around her to turn into a liquid, and with the combination of Hidden Mole Jutsu's magnetic sixth sense, Tatsuki aimed directly for the two enemies.

Bunka had never faced anything like that before, so she tried to get away from it by running in the opposite direction. Yasuo was quicker, but it didn't matter. The instant that she propelled herself out of the ground, like a shark jumping out of the sea to catch its prey, she slammed into the blonde healer with an extended fist, enough force to crack bone. The healer was launched forward, skittering across the ground like a skipping stone, before coming to a stop.

Tatsuki couldn't believe that she had that much power behind her strikes. It took her a second to realize that she had subconsciously dipped into the Nanabi's power, using it to augment her physical strength, and she tried to snap out of it.

 **You want me to help you,**  the Nanabi said.  **You desire my power, and you lack the conviction in your own skills to stop me from taking steps to get what** _ **I**_ **want.**

Tatsuki huffed.  _"No way is that true. I know I'm good enough. And besides, I know all you want is to get out."_

The Nanabi huffed.  **Don't presume to know everything about me and my kind from first glance. Make your own judgment about me and my actions. I haven't liked being cooped up in here anymore than you would if you were in my shoes. Despite that, Kisuke Urahara was an interesting fellow when he sealed me away. He made me a deal.**

_"What kind of deal?"_

**You'll know when you need to know. Of course, half the fun of having a jinchuuriki in the first place is getting to be cryptic.**

"You killed him!" A shout suddenly broke out, cutting off her internal conversation. "You killed Yasuo, you bitch!" The brunette samurai was kneeling over the body of the healer, and everything in Tatsuki's mind suddenly grew cold.

"What... There's n-no way! I couldn't have!"

Bunka had turned into a blubbering mess, but she turned her anger into vengeance. Tatsuki could see the change on her face the moment the woman decided to kill her all over again. The samurai picked up her axe, swinging the huge weapon over her head, before running toward her, tears flowing down her angry face.

 **"Earth-Style: Spears of Stone Jutsu!"** A thin but strong weapon formed from the ground, just in time for her to block the axe's attack.

"You're going to die for what you did, bitch!" Bunka moved back and swung again, and Tatsuki spun the weapon around to defend herself again, before thrusting the weapon forward.

The spear was not enough to damage the armor covering the woman's torso, but it was enough to bruise. Tatsuki pulled back and tried to swing again at the same spot, but the samurai suddenly dropped to the ground at the same time she swung upward, sliding to her knees.

The bladed weapon collided with Tatsuki, sinking inches into her flesh and rending the fight over. The Karakura native looked down at the wound, where a seven-inch long gash cut across the side of her ribs, narrowly avoiding puncturing anything dangerous. She was so shocked at being injured that she didn't even notice Bunka's hidden knife slip into her thigh.

Tatsuki dropped to the ground, only consciously aware that she was probably going to die from blood loss. Her last thought before she slipped into unconsciousness was the pretentious but caring scowl of Ichigo Kurosaki, chiding her that she had lost.

* * *

The Sanbi was a powerful creature, of that he had no doubt. But high-level Kido was definitely not something that its power could overcome. Naruto concentrated all of his might on the right side of the one-eyed turtle's body, where it was less likely that the Bijuu would see his attacks coming. When he figured out that strategy, it made him think of Hanabi and just reinvigorated all of his efforts to capture the beast, cripple Aizen, and find Genisuke.

As soon as the six rods of light appeared around one of its tails, Naruto realized that it was losing. Its other tails thrashed and it continued to try to spawn spikes of coral and lash out with its tails, but he was learning the creature's attack patterns.

Naruto dodged the spiky forest of oceanic stone forming around him, before trying another Rikujokoro. The second tail was locked into place, unable to move. When he redoubled his efforts and finally caught the last one, he realized that he had the perfect opportunity to begin crafting the seal that Urahara had used on the Nanabi. He fished out the jewel for the ring, already preloaded to recognize open Bijuu chakra in the atmosphere and lock onto it. The former captain had been kind enough to craft a few key incantations in order to make the combination Kido easier to use. He wondered how easily it would be for Momo to do this on her own, without any guidance.

He began to chant, but something stopped him. A feeling of utter dread washed over him, and his eyes shot back to where Tatsuki had been fighting the two samurai.

The Yamanaka was dead, and Tatsuki's reiryoku was fading fast from his senses. The axe wielder had wounded her with a cut to the side and a stab to the thigh, and her blood was flowing freely around her lower half.

"Her healing factor will save her," Naruto realized.

**Not exactly. That is something that comes from me. An individual power of mine. You've seen the Nanabi's special characteristics, like her enhanced durability, strength, and flight. She can't heal any faster than a normal human with chakra.**

_"I've gotta get down there and save her then, before Bunka gets tired of watching her die slowly."_

At the worst possible moment, power suddenly began to gather behind him, and he turned in time to see orbs of concentrated energy gather around the Bijuu's maw. The power began to turn into a much larger sphere of pulsating energy, its power so dense that he could feel it weighing on him, pressing his body.

 **A Biju Bomb!** The Kyuubi realized.  **Not good, not good.**

Naruto had no time to ask what that was, as he began to chant, Kido warping and gathering around the green jewel. The spell latched onto the chakra signature of the beast, a link forming out of green energy from the jewel. As soon as the link was established, the Bijuu's orb of power was nearing completion, and he didn't have enough time.

Naruto drew his sword, instantly releasing it into shikai without a command and firing the chain at the creature.  **"Rasentane!"** The spinning orange bolt of light at the end of its dagger sliced right through the charging energy ball, and everything exploded.

He retracted his shikai's dagger and moved with the fastest Shunpo he could manage, not fast enough to escape the rush of heat behind him. He stood in front of Tatsuki, holding out his hand. **"Danku!"**

The nigh-transparent wall was enough to escape the brunt of the impact, his spiritual pressure protecting him and Tatsuki's unconscious form from the rest of the impact. Even Bunka had been protected by the onslaught, although that was not exactly intentional. Naruto was in awe of how powerful that truly was.  _What would that have been like at full power? That was more explosive than any Cero!_

**You don't even want to know, kid.**

The energy finally died down, the sheer amount of damage to the coast around them was staggering. The shrine had been destroyed completely, revealing the white portal underneath it. The smoke cleared to reveal that Naruto's Kido still held the three tails of the turtle in place, but it had shielded itself from its own explosion by covering its shell with a layer of coral. It roared again, and Naruto continued the incantation to seal it away.

Its power began to absorb into the jewel, drawing into the re-established link and falling into the jewel. First he had to pull its energy, and then he had to pull its form. He continued to invoke the right spells, some of them more beyond his skills than any he had cast before. Had all the right conditions not been met, he probably would have struggled to complete the ritual.

The Kido extended in the form of chains, suddenly locking the turtle in place. Its power had been drained away, and it looked like it had lost some of its mass. It was helpless to avoid the next step, as the Kido yanked it off the ground and into the jewel. It took several seconds before it was silenced, and Naruto realized he had succeeded.

He cheered, realizing that he had secured one more Bijuu so that three of the nine could not be used against them. It was so awesome to consider that Aizen wouldn't get his hands on at least one more!

Suddenly, someone snatched it out of his hand. "I'll take that, thanks." Bunka had the emerald in her hands, and Naruto couldn't believe that he had let her take that. How had that worked? He felt like such an idiot, and she was injured too. "Lord Jashin will be pleased. You might want to get medical attention for your friend there." And with that, she jumped into the portal of the destroyed shrine, and it closed after her.

* * *

Samui rose back to consciousness the second before she hit the canopy line, at the base of the cliff where the shrine was located. She threw out an arm as she hit the first branches, trying to find a thick one to steady her fall without breaking her arm in the process. Her now sealed zanpakutou caught in between a thick fork, and her entire body lurched away from the ground, the shoulder on her good arm popping out of place.

The pain was absolutely unbearable. She dropped to the ground carefully, tears stinging her eyes. She didn't know any healing Kido, and without another person there, she couldn't relocate her shoulder on her own. She wished she knew some super-secret method to fixing it, but she didn't. She couldn't hold onto anything, but at least she was used to using her other arm for a sword while her Shikai was activated.

She took several deep, calming breaths and scanned for nearby spiritual pressures. Nothing. She sat there for another full minute before jumped into the air, ignoring her the pain on her shoulder, and airwalking back to the top.

The minute she returned, she gasped. All of the hollows had exploded after her Shikai made the shrine explode somehow, and whatever stragglers were left had already started to purify and head to the Soul Society. She honestly couldn't believe she had done it, but she needed to figure out what was going on.

A swirling vortex of white energy, occasionally emitting white mist of some kind, sat on the ground underneath where the shrine stood. She watched it for a few moments, trying to figure out what it was, and she imagined that the white mist was somehow existing a portal and becoming the sekkisekki that filled the sky.

Causing the shrine to explode must have unleashed more of it, if she could literally see the mist for a few seconds before diffusing. She needed to seal it away, and while she knew what spells that Shikamaru had used, she couldn't cast any of them.

"What the hell?" asked a voice. Samui spun around to see Amaya waking up as a Plus, her soul chain no longer connected to her body. The woman did not waste any time, trying to make hand-signs and kill her with another jutsu. When nothing happened, the redhead frowned. "What did you do to me, shinigami?"

Samui took a deep breath and wished inwardly that they had not died. She should have worked harder to capture them, but it didn't matter now.

"You're dead." She watched as Goro appeared in a white outfit, a chain dangling from his chest. "You're both dead."

"You bitch!" A very emotional Amaya rushed at her, completely unarmed and virtually no reiryoku, despite having been spiritually aware while alive. Samui resealed her Shikai, her second blade vanishing from her left hand. She paid both samurai no attention, and when the redheaded woman reached back to hit her, Samui let her.

The fist was basically like getting hit with a breeze of wind, and there was almost no force behind it at all. Again and again, Amaya slapped and punched the shinigami ineffectively.

Eventually, the large man reached and touched Amaya's shoulder. "Come on, stop. Before you lose the small amount of dignity you have left."

"This wasn't how it was supposed to go!" she said, confusing Samui initially. "Lord Jashin promised that we'd be enlightened! He promised that he would lift us up, to give us power! Now we have nothing!"

This woman was absolutely insane, but Samui decided that it was time. She held up her blade, showing the woman the symbol scrawled on the very bottom of the hilt. "I'm going to perform konso on you now. If you're lucky, you'll be sent to the Soul Society, where you'll find peace."

Amaya initially tried to scream, tried to avoid getting touched by the end of the blade. "I promise it won't hurt." Samui glanced at the other former samurai, and he nodded, as though understanding her silent plea. She did Goro first, the blue light of konso enveloping him peacefully and sending him as a white-blue ball of light, and the true essence of his soul headed to the Soul Society.

"See? It's not going to hurt you," Samui said. "It's actually rather peaceful."

Amaya seemed awestruck by the possibility. She did not fight it anymore, but the shinigami wasn't going to do it for her just yet.

"I have a question first, and you don't have to answer if you don't want," she explained. "But it would make my job so much easier if you would." She pointed at the portal underneath the remnants of the shrine. "What is that?"

When Amaya didn't answer, Samui frowned. "If you're going to tell me what you know of it, you're going to want to do it sooner rather than later, or you'll start to turn into one of those masked monsters that you people are using to hold these nations hostage." She paused. "Actually, it might be better to let you turn into one of those things. But I've heard the pain is excruciating, and it doesn't end until the chain disintegrates completely." She gestured to the metallic links attached to Amaya's chest. "You probably only have a few minutes before it starts, and once it does, I won't spare you."

"It's a portal," the woman blurted out, but there was something hidden in her voice... Was she trying to hide her fear? "Lord Jashin showed Lord Genisuke how to use them to draw forth hollows and how to travel vast distances by creating them. We can do it too."

Samui nodded. "Thank you." She inwardly began digesting the information, wishing that Amaya had known more about the nature of the portal itself. Was it some kind of Senkaimon or even a Garganta? It didn't look like either one. Was this Jashin person an actual person, and not just a figment of their imagination? Or had Genisuke somehow activated odd abilities like the two human Ryoka, on top of the already odd abilities associated with chakra? If it was the latter, she could only imagine the kind of insanity it would take for him to believe it was a gift from a chaos god.

Samui gasped when red light started to pour from the place where she touched the samurai with the sword. A foreign reiatsu started to appear high above them, powerful enough that Samui wondered if she was going to suffocate, and she realized what was happening.  _Hell..._

The great chained gates suddenly appeared with a great slamming sound, as though they were dropping hard on the ground, despite hovering in the sky. It had emerged from the red light of Amaya's Konso, the slight gap between the two closed doors burning bright with dark red light. The huge red doors seemed to be held shut by the twin skeletons bleeding through its surface, chains held together by their bony hands.

Within seconds, Amaya began to scream for her life, the hands pulling the door open and snapping the chains. Samui watched in awe as the power reached out and touched her, and without warning, began pulling her body apart, the bits and pieces scattering into the dark red space beyond the doors.

A giant hand and sword suddenly appeared, piercing through what was left of the Plus's body. In mere moments, the hand retracted inside, carrying Amaya inside and closing the doors, the energy vibrating the atmosphere. Small red cracks spread over the gates, and the moment that they reached into the center, the dimensional path to Hell shattered into pieces and disappeared.

Samui could not really believe it. Goro and Amaya had both been alive before she got there, and she and Jin killed both of them in self-defense. She blamed herself for it, not Jin. At least, that's what she told herself. She did not want to start questioning what was happening here: Genisuke and the Land of Iron took over her former home, and even if she had no real attachment to it, she didn't want Jin or anyone else to suffer because of his army of hollows. Taking out his enforcers was necessary, because if she hadn't done it, Jin would have died. And she couldn't let that happen.

But she had sent one of them to Hell, to be punished for all eternity. Hell was a mystery to her, and only the most oldest high-ranking captains knew anything about the dimension where those who committed sins while they were alive go. Why did Amaya go and not Goro? Had the woman done something more awful than helping Genisuke? Apparently, helping the samurai's regime was not the sin here.

She wished that she didn't feel bad about this. There were so many other ways she could have handled it, but in the heat of the moment, this happened. And because of that, one of them would be punished for all eternity.

Shikamaru would want to know. She wrote out the message on her Soul Phone, sending a quick update on what happened. She left out the details on what happened after performing konso, deciding to keep that between her and Captain Komamura when she reported back to him and Lieutenant Iba.

She walked closer to the portal, trying to figure it out. With her good arm, she picked up a large rock from the ground and threw it into the portal. The rock was immediately sucked inside.

She knew it was stupid, and that it probably wasn't cool at all, but she decided to follow her impulse. Samui leaped into the portal, white mist overloading her senses.

* * *

Shikamaru and Tenten managed to defeat the hollows spawning from the shrine, and Tenten was just glad that there was an end to it. The moment that Shikamaru's Soul Phone beeped, Tenten smiled. "That's Samui, right?"

The Squad Eight officer nodded, reading the message. "Samui and Jin fought and killed two spiritually-aware samurai, who were aiming to free the seal. In the process, the barriers broke as hollows overloaded them. Samui used her shikai to destroy the hollows and the shrine in one shot, which revealed a portal among the wreckage that spawned the sekkisekki mist. She convinced one of the samurai to tell her what she knew about the portal before performing konso, and Jashin gave them the ability to create portals and drawn hollows from them."

Tenten thought that was interesting. "It doesn't feel like there's a Garganta under there to me, so what other portal could spawn hollows?"

"There is none," Shikamaru explained. "The only thing I could think of is that this is some kind of weird portal to the Dangai that surrounds Hueco Mundo. Maybe it captures hollows travelling to the World of the Living and forces them to wherever Genisuke wants them to go?"

"That doesn't explain how he or his followers are able to control the hollows. So far, they haven't attacked the samurai. How could they be immune?"

"Maybe they don't taste good," Shikamaru haphazardly said, starting to laugh before suddenly realizing something.

"Did you just do what I think you did?"

"Maybe."

"Damn it, Shikamaru," Tenten said in exasperation. "You're too smart for your own good. Could you step off of your ego pedestal and tell me what you're thinking?"

He rolled his eyes. "Shut up, Tenten. It's a total guess, but maybe Genisuke has trained his reiatsu signature, and all the men who follow him, to not appeal to hollows."

"How would he do that? What in the world kind of reiatsu signature could be disgusting to a hollow? They even eat their own kind!"

"I don't know," Shikamaru admitted. "But that's just another weird part of this whole situation. Maybe we'll figure it out as we go." When his phone beeped with another message, he looked down. "Oh, she's an idiot. She said she was going to jump into the portal to figure it out."

Tenten's eyes widened. "Wow. Samui did that? Doesn't sound like her. That sounds more like someone from my squad. Ikkaku would have been the first in line, and Yumichika would have followed him, complaining about getting his uniform dirty or something."

Shikamaru just grinned, before heading over to analyze the shrine again. They needed to do something about the bodies of the dead samurai; both of them had already been sent on to the Soul Society, and Tenten didn't feel like she had any regrets. They wouldn't become hollows at any rate.

"Can we blow it up?"

"We?" Shikamaru asked incredulously. "You don't have anything that could, and I'm not good at Hado."

"Oh, I can do it." Tenten charged her reiatsu, gathering as much of it as she could into her sealed blade. When she could feel the power coursing through the blade, making the steel stronger and better all around, she rushed at the shrine holding both hands.

In only one vertical strike, her reiatsu slashed through it into two pieces. She followed through with several horizontal slashes, quick enough that she managed to cut through the wood as it was falling into even smaller chunks. She laid her sword against her shoulder, proud of her accomplishment.

Sure enough, cutting away the shrine revealed the portal secured beneath it. Shikamaru was like a kid in a candy store, like he had some kind of new puzzle to figure out.

"You sure you shouldn't transfer to Squad Twelve?" asked Tenten. "You look like you want to perform thirty experiments on that portal at the same time. It usually takes more than that to get you going."

He scoffed. "I wouldn't work for Captain Kurotsuchi if it killed me. Did you know that he sacrificed his own daughter, his lieutenant, to try to kill all of us who were in his lab?"

"But I saw her heading to the Squad One barracks after it was all over, for a lieutenants' meeting."

"Yeah, well, after he forced her to explode, she somehow pieced herself together again. I don't know what Nemu is, but I wouldn't dare step foot in that Squad."

Tenten was truly shocked. "That's crazy."

The other shinigami nodded, already reading several chains of data and measurements from his scanner. "We need to figure out what to do about this portal, so we can make sure it stays open long enough to get Samui out."

Just as he said it, Samui's reiatsu suddenly burst from the portal in one small amount, just enough to recognize that it was hers. Tenten tried to isolate it, but the sekkisekki inside was making it very difficult. Eventually, she managed to figure it out.

"Samui's fighting!" she shouted and ran toward it, drawing her sword. "Hold it open!"

Shikamaru was about to object, but the minute that Tenten crossed the portal's threshold, it closed on itself. Shikamaru cursed under his breath, wondering if all of this was just above his pay grade.

* * *

The inside of the portal was interesting, but she felt entirely unwelcome, like this was someone else's personal space. The fog was so thick that she could barely see more than a few meters in front of her, and she had no idea if there was a ceiling at all. The floor was as smooth as a tile floor and colored almost pure white, and there was so much hollow reiatsu that it literally surrounded her on all sides, from all angles, and she was suddenly terrified that she had walked into the lions' den.

Tenten wasn't even sure if she would be able to see them coming if they were to attack her outright, and she tried to keep her own power to the bare minimum while she was there. Samui had to be somewhere close, and based on the spiritual pressure, she needed to go to her right.

She kept her hand tight on her sword as she ran, keeping away from Shunpo or any other Hohou skill so that she could get there as quickly as possible while staying out of their attention.

The environment hardly changed, an impossibly vast expanse that seemed to have no defining features but the mist enveloping her. It was ominous and terrifying to imagine that the entire place was so empty and filled with hollows. Was this an unknown part of Hueco Mundo? A special type of Dangai?  _I don't even think Captain Kurotsuchi could figure this out..._  Tenten thought to herself.

Something began to appear on the edge of her sight, and she stopped on the spot to investigate. She was so glad to have her zanpakutou with her, because this whole situation was just becoming more and more eerie.

"What the hell?" When it finally took shape and she could see it clearly, she was dumbfounded.

Attached to the pale white floor was some kind of fleshy bud, and to her horror, there was enough light that she could see a shadow of a person inside of it, frozen in place behind the pod.

Tenten took a deep breath and cut carefully, which was difficult. She was not a surgeon; she was a warrior, and that kind of steady bladework was not her forte. "Come on!" Liquid began to pour from the opening, and she had to fight to ignore the stench of rot. She managed to pull the person out, and she realized that it was a male shinigami, shihakusho and all. His zanpakutou was a mere Asauchi sword, probably unseated.

He looked very well-preserved, but it was obvious that he was dead. She wished that she could bring him back to life, but that wasn't going to happen. She memorized his features and decided to have Nanao and Shikamaru cross-reference their databases for any names.

She felt a surge of reiatsu wash over her, and immediately, she backed up, eyes widening. The floor underneath the young shinigami started to change, melting into odd suction-cupped tentacles. Immediately, they rose up and slammed shut over the body, reforming the pod that stored him. It happened so quickly that she couldn't do anything about it, and when the floor started to change around her, she ran in the opposite direction at full speed.

"What the fuck is this place?"

She tried to search again for Samui, and as soon as she had a lock on her reiatsu, she used Shunpo to get there as soon as possible, no longer caring about the hollow reiatsu all around her. She noticed countless more pods, all containing something. She had a suspicion that there were humans, shinigami, and hollows too, if she looked hard enough.

The moment she found the blonde, Samui had just finished off a bird-like hollow. There were three more around her, and Tenten used the moment of surprise.  **"Transform, Yukai Datsu!"**  Her blade seamlessly changed into a spear, and with an adjustment of its sharpness and rigidity, she made the blade strong enough to swipe through the hollows in one go.

"Boy, am I glad to see you!" Samui stated, breathing hard. "They don't stop coming; give it a few seconds. This was such an awful idea."

Tenten nodded. "Yeah, I'd say so. This is the kind of thing that Squad Eleven loves to jump into, but it almost always turns out badly."

"Did Shikamaru secure the portal so we have a way out?"

"Hate to say it, but no. It closed as soon as I got inside."

The Squad Seven Third Seat nodded. "Yeah. Figures. Anything else you can tell me before our friends join us again?"

"Uh, have you noticed the pods? And how the room seems to have a mind of its own?"

Samui nodded. "It's a lot like the Dangai's restrictive current. Somehow, they got trapped while passing through the portal's dimension." After a second, she gestured to her right. "Look at this. It's one of the samurai. I found her trying to fight them off herself, and she looked like she had lost."

The living floor was nearly finished encasing her, an unconscious brunette woman who had a large cut on her forehead. The pod had already formed around her from the waist down, and it seemed to be slowly stretching across her. One hand had already been covered by the liquid, clutching it closely to her chest.

"She was holding something," Samui explained. "I never got a good look at it, but she seemed to be holding onto it tightly. It's been going like that for several minutes now, after she was knocked unconscious."

"Great. Why don't we see what was so interesting?" Tenten was going to reach down and cut into what was molding around the girl's hand, but the haunting roar stopped her in her tracks.

Samui reacted first, pushing Tenten out of the way of the oncoming Gillian Cero with all her might. "What?" The Squad Eleven shinigami whipped her head back around just in time to see the jet of red energy envelop Samui, a group of several Menos Grande surrounding them.


	30. Into the Maw of Chaos

"Can you slow down please?" asked Tatsuki in between jumps with Shunpo, each word punctuated by another burst of speed that each carried them hundreds of meters. "I can't catch my breath!"

Naruto didn't say anything. He was not going to slow down. He couldn't. Genisuke had to be where the last Bijuu signal was, in the Land of Earth, and according to Shikamaru, the last Jashin portal shrine was there as well. Naruto had already determined that he would save everyone. Samui and Tenten were apparently stuck inside the portal, the same portal that Bunka fled into with the Bijuu that he had successfully captured; he couldn't let it get into the wrong hands, like Aizen. Genisuke would no doubt be there, waiting for him to show up to save Hanabi, and Naruto grit his teeth and clenched his fists.

He would save them. He would save them all. He had to; there was no other way.

The second that the stone tower materialized on the horizon, dotted by large mountainous peaks, Naruto grinned with determination and shot forward even faster, causing Tatsuki to yell for help.

He slowed down just enough to get a feel for the area spiritually; the feel of Bijuu chakra was clearly there, at the top of that tower made of rock, and Shikamaru was approaching him from afar. He couldn't feel any malevolent energy other than Genisuke, so he was sure that there weren't any hollows hidden around them. Not that that would make a difference.

"Geez, can't you cut me a break?" Tatsuki cried out when he finally stopped, close enough they could see everything. The top of the huge tower made of earth was in view now, and on it was no doubt Genisuke's castle. "That doesn't look natural at all."

Naruto frowned. "It's not. This is where the Third Tsuchikage's last stand took place in the Fourth Great Shinobi War." That knowledge was borrowed from the Kyuubi's memories; it was so subconscious, the transfer of knowledge weird to him, and he made a point to ask the fox about that later. Why had he been able to just learn that from him without even trying?

"Really? Against who?" the girl asked, still wrapped around his body to stay aloft.

"Madara Uchiha," Naruto continued. "He lost, in the end, so it really doesn't matter about the details. But that's Genisuke's base of operations, his headquarters, if I had to guess. That place is probably filled with samurai, but I don't sense any spiritual signatures other than a choice few, so most of them will be useless."

He analyzed the castle made of iron that had a more Japanese feel to it than any of the other villages he had ever visited in the Elemental Nations. Its style reminded Naruto of the Soul Society's general architecture, and he truly wanted to scream in anger and destroy the entire structure.

It was an affront to his former culture. The shrines being so widespread across the lands was bad enough; the Cult of Jashin had many implications for religious belief that he really did not want to get into. But the Land of Iron establishing a castle on the monument of one of the most powerful and respected shinobi of his time... That was taking it too far.

"Wow. Either way, this is really cool. In a bad sort of way," she corrected. "That thing must be over five hundred meters high!"

It was a good seat of power; Naruto could respect that much. Genisuke rules the islands with his Invisible Hand, spiritual hollows he could teleport into existence basically anywhere. Shinobi didn't have many options to get to the highest reaches to stop it, and the pillar was too wide to be destroyed by explosives. He could spawn hollow from the sky and send them out to devour those that tried to stand against him, and they wouldn't see him coming.

Genisuke was an evil genius who ruled with fear-mongering and unnatural powers he believed to be religious, like the ability to control hollows or his status as the Yonbi jinchuuriki. It added up into a truly dangerous man for those who didn't have the power to stand against him, like Naruto.

The lazy brunette flashed into existence in front of them. "How's it going? You must be Tatsuki. It's nice to meet you, I guess."

She frowned. "Uh, yeah. Nice to meet you too, Shikamaru."

"Can we cut the small talk?" Naruto asked, which made the other shinigami raise an eyebrow. "I was thinking of just storming this place and destroying everything I see with my Shikai and Kido. If I get particularly angry enough, I'll go Bankai. You got a better plan than that?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes. "Where's the finesse, Naruto?"

"The finesse left when I let these bastards take Hanabi, take the Bijuu, and conquer my home. I'm getting it all back, today."

* * *

"You know he's going to save me."

She declared it with confidence. Maybe it was foolish; she was certain that her family would view her faith in him as ridiculous and impossible to understand, but Naruto  _would_ save her. If she didn't save herself first.

After everything that happened, she could only see with one eye. Naruto had led to the eventual ruination of their dwindling village, twice, even if neither time had been fully intentional. She'd lost her daughter in a war that no one should have had to fight, all because the political balance was wrong.

"Well, he'll definitely  _try,_ I'm sure," the man said, brushing a hand through his dark hair. "The result is still up for debate, but I'm leaning toward his death."

Hanabi had been trying to work up her chakra for hours, but it wasn't working. Every few hours, someone would walk into the room and force feed her food that was probably poisoned with some kind of agent that blocked the chakra pathways. The last time she was fed, she managed to avoid swallowing it, and she spat it out at just the right time to avoid having anyone see her do it. Little by little her strength and chakra flow had returned, but her control was not impeded by her old age. She had been very good at disguising her chakra networks against prying Byakugan from an early age, and she could easily make it look as though there was nothing happening.

"Remind me of your goal again," Hanabi said. "My memory is not what it used to be."

The samurai shook his head. "I've already told you once."

She frowned. "Honestly, I'm surprised. I figured you'd be grateful to get a chance to monologue again."

"Ah, yes. Painting me as the bad guy with as many clichés as your Jiraiya's perverted works."

She had never known Jiraiya personally, but she'd heard stories of him, perhaps the greatest shinobi to ever pass through the Hidden Leaf Village after its founder. After all, it had been him to defeat Pain to avenge his pupil's death, and it was so surreal to Hanabi to interact with that pupil so many years later. It was like watching forgotten legacies unfolding before her very eyes.

She frowned, realizing that that was a singular eye now. The samurai before her had already transplanted her eye to join her daughter's on his face, and it just enraged her more and more to think about stealing someone's birthright away from them.

The man was about to say something to her again when a young attendant, a boy no more than ten years old, entered the room. He looked confused and terrified, like he didn't understand what was happening but he knew it was bad. The boy was dressed in very thin armor nowhere near the quality of Genisuke, but it looked too big on him. He had a kunai at his side, but it looked like it was brand new.

It pained her to see such young people fighting, and she had once been a part of a similar system where children were trained for espionage and to act with deadly force, even if most of the time, they never had the opportunity. The village tried to preserve their innocence by leaving them out of missions where combat was necessary, until they were older teenagers and could better handle it. But Hanabi knew that people always slipped through the cracks; she'd never forget consoling a fourteen-year-old Hinata when her sister came home after getting her first confirmed kill on a mission.

"Lord Genisuke," the boy said with a bow, his armor shifting slightly. "Hiro sent me. Uzumaki's here, with friends."

Hanabi took a deep breath and halted the flow of chakra within her body, just in time to see Genisuke activate his stolen eyes, veins stretching across his face. After a tense moment, he nodded. "Yes. Of course he is, and apparently, he _has_  brought help." The samurai turned to her place on the ground, tied against the wall across from the portal. "They think they will get the drop on me, but I can see their ever-"

Something exploded and shook the building, and Hanabi could almost feel the rage pouring off of him in waves. If she could see his chakra, she'd see the beast stirring within him. Another exploded on the opposite side of the building, and a chain reaction continued that ringed around the entire base, each taking out parts of Genisuke's army and demolishing the walls. The boy was practically cowering in fear, clutching the samurai's leg.

"I will not tolerate weakness!" In one motion, the man kicked the boy away into a wall, a crack forming in the stone from the power of his blow. The impressive strength seemed to startle even Genisuke, who took a deep breath to calm himself. The boy did not get up, a gash appearing on his arm, and Hanabi had never felt more enraged in her life.

She didn't care anymore. Now was her chance, and it was as good a chance as any. She concentrated on the places of her body where her bindings touched, and immediately diverted nearly all of her chakra to expel from her tenketsu near those areas. The chakra flared up in a quick pulse, enough that she was able to burn through the ropes holding her, and Hanabi stood and immediately moved onto the offensive.

She slid easily into her own preferred Gentle Fist stance, and she had to be wary about how she approached this because she didn't have enough chakra to spare more than a few bouts. She moved with fast grace that someone her age would kill to obtain, and in one motion, she aimed her palm directly at the samurai's stomach to hit the main source of chakra and wound his internal organs.

"You will not hurt anyone else ever again!"

In a speed that reflected that Genisuke was just more youthful, the man reached out and grabbed her wrist, before snapping her arm back and breaking it without question. She screamed in agony, and the man just threw her away, back hitting the corner.

"It amazes me that you had the willpower to get up and use your chakra," he explained. "You must have been skipping your meals."

She cringed and tried to remain conscious, but the pain was unbearable. The man just leaned down and spat in her face, just as everything went dark.

* * *

Tatsuki was in awe of Shikamaru's brain. The strategy was easy enough to understand, but she'd have never thought of it herself. The cloaking Kido that he had crafted around them would shield their spiritual pressure and their bodies from view from anyone without the Byakugan, while Naruto prepared to go in after they managed to handle it.

The explosions were huge and powerful, constantly going off with enough interval in between that they wouldn't be able to guess if they were done for good. In one plan, they had crippled the entire effectiveness of the base, all because of Shikamaru's quick thinking with his zanpakutou's ability.

It was such a simplistic plan that she was honestly surprised. Tatsuki put away the now empty roll of Naruto had dipped into the Kyuubi's chakra to give them an extra bit of power as he re-drew their sealing arrays, but Tatsuki had supplied the bit of power into them to activate them. They'd hopefully do enough damage on locations that would not destroy the castle around Hanabi.

Apparently, as Shikamaru explained it, the Byakugan wouldn't be able to sense his zanpakutou's Shikai doppelganger because it doesn't have any spiritual pressure of its own. So he used it to distribute the paper bombs to the various locations, and all Tatsuki had to do was cause them to explode.

"What next?" she asked, unsure. But it seemed that the samurai made the next move. Very dangerous spiritual pressure suddenly began to rise, and white portals appeared all across the sky and around them. Hollows poured from the portals, their numbers dangerous enough to hold off most people. Tatsuki had seen Naruto wipe out huge numbers of them with powerful Kido spells, but it appeared that there was no end in sight for them. "This is bad news."

Shikamaru nodded, but none of the hollows made a move yet. Naruto was nowhere in sight, waiting in the wings for Shikamaru's plan to give him ample opportunity to get in and distract Genisuke. In fact, he may have already moved in, and she was looking forward to fighting alongside him. Tatsuki had to mentally prepare herself for what would come next.

One particular hollow appeared, looking like a feathered dragon with scaly skin and four wings, stretching along its crimson serpentine body. On its head was a samurai that she recognized, the one named Hiro who uses genjutsu. He looked to be in charge, and Shikamaru was already mentally preparing for what would come next, his zanpakutou's doppelganger in front of him.

"This guy uses genjutsu, Shikamaru," she explained, pointing to the man on the huge dragon's head, his black armor a stark contrast to the white beak-like mask. "I don't know what triggers it."

The shinigami took in a deep calming breath. "The Kido I casted should protect us from sight long enough. It's the only reason why they haven't attacked yet."

"What do we do? You got a new plan?"

"I'm sure I'll come up with something," he muttered, before concentrating long enough to realize something. "Naruto's made his move inside, cutting through the southern blast entrance we made in the walls."

She nodded. "All right, then it's up to us."

"It's going to be really hard to fight with you on my back, but I can't drop you off on the tower outside the castle. It's going to be swarming with samurai and the hollows are bad enough."

She remembered Naruto's words, about waiting for the right time. Assaulting a base like this, where there were no other options, was a good enough time as any. She concentrated, feeling the Nanabi's power rush into her body from the ring, and the cloak poured over her until two yellow-orange opaque wings sprouted on her back. The second she took flight, she realized the power was rushing to her mind.  _C'mon, Tatsuki. You can do this. Diligence. Respect. You can control it!_

 **You desire my power. There's no use lying to yourself, little nymph. Your sensei is distracting you from what you really want.**  The tempting voice of the horned beetle kept rushing through her brain, but the words of her friends and her master helped her calm it down into the back of her mind. She had to fight now, if all else. She gave Shikamaru a thumbs-up. "I've got this." She concentrated on flowing chakra into her eyes, a small red glow coming from behind the pupils. It let her use a form of compound vision, like the vision of a fly, that gives greater clarity to detect split-second motion around her.

"You sure using that is a good idea?" asked Shikamaru.

"Do you have any other options?" she retorted, clutching her fists. "I wish there  _were_  other options, but there's too much riding on this. How much longer till we make our move?"

The shinigami took another second to think before he gestured ahead. "The Kido is going to dispel as soon as I give the signal. By my count, there are fifty-two hollows around us, and all of them are low-level but the dragon. It's nearing the level of a Menos Grande, if you know the terminology at all."

She didn't know it well, but Naruto had given her a crash course that running into one of those, for her, was very bad news. "I know enough to get the hell out of the way of that one."

"Right. I'll get it. If we do a joint assault with you providing back-up for Kakusayami," he gestured to the dark spirit, "and me watching your back with Bakudo, you can clear the group around this genjutsu-user, while I get the dragon."

"What about him?" she asked.

"I'll take care of him myself," he muttered. "I wish I had the power left to use Bakudo on all of them at once. It'd be easy to pick them off, one by one, but the numbers and the fact that they are surrounding us is going to make this difficult. Naruto could probably do it, but he's too trigger-happy. The second the explosions started, he rushed off to find the bastard."

Tatsuki nodded, hovering where she stood by the flapping of her chakra wings. "I've never really tested it before outside of sparring with Naruto, but the chakra enhances my skin and my muscles, like an exoskeleton. His zanpakutou couldn't cut me."

Shikamaru took in the information, knowing it would help protect her. "Yeah, that's not really helpful. Naruto would never hurt someone like that in a sparring match, so I'm pretty sure your defenses aren't as strong as you think."

"All the better to test them then, right?" she suggested, pushing up her sleeves and concentrated on keeping her chakra under her control. "Let's get this show on the road."

He just sighed. "Well. You're eager, I'll give you that. How did I get stuck having to deal with two people who are so similar?"

* * *

Naruto didn't even pay attention to the inside of the castle, he just kept his focus on finding where Hanabi's chakra and small amount of spiritual pressure was coming from. He made several twists and turns, seeing the destruction that Shikamaru's plan had set off, and it was a sight to behold.

He was aware of the hollows around him outside the castle walls and in the sky above them, but they seemed to ignore him and were focused on Shikamaru and Tatsuki. He wasn't sure why, but he had a startling suspicion that Genisuke wanted him to fight him alone. That would prove to be his downfall, no matter what.

Three men of varying ages suddenly appeared, obviously caught off guard by all the chaos because they weren't dressed for war. They couldn't see him, but they were choked by the amount of spiritual pressure he was unleashing to mark his presence for those who could. He eventually let off, allowing them to live as he stormed past their unconscious bodies, grasping for air.

When one armored person appeared around the corner inside some area that looked like a library, followed by a group, he shouted orders to aim toward the doorway where Naruto was. Arrows covered with chakra flowed toward him, but he didn't even bother to dodge them. The expelling force of his reiatsu was enough to stop them in mid-air, crushing them to dust. "Sorry. I'm not sorry."

He flickered behind them, poking them all hard in their sides, between their rib bones. The energy was enough to carry through the armor, bruising their internal organs, and the samurai dropped to the ground beside him, before he burst through the next room.

He used Shunpo through the next hallway, watching where he stepped; he wasn't going to let himself get caught off guard by the simple traps that blocked off the next room, and they were so numerous that he could feel that Hanabi was past that door at the end of the hall.

He burst through the huge doors by knocking them off their hinges, immediately terrifying the huge crowds of people gathered, huddled in the place they thought would be safest. Naruto looked around at the dozens of people, some civilian and some prisoners, watching the area he was standing in with fear as though a ghost was attacking.

 **Not far from the case,** the Kyuubi reminded him.

Sitting on the large throne was the black-haired man himself. Both of his eyes were pupil-less and colored in pale lavender, and he realized something was wrong here. He only had one Byakugan before.  _Hanabi! I'll kill him!_

**Oh, yes. Kill him.**

He could feel his zanpakutou's spirit scoff at the fox from inside his inner world.  _"Don't do it yet, Naruto. Don't waste the opportunity you have to learn what's going on behind the scenes."_

_Fine._

Genisuke was surrounded by a few personal guards, all of them trained on him.  _Spiritually-aware_ , he realized, but he wasn't worried about them.

He pondered why that was so common in the Elemental Nations these days, and he figured that when Hinata's Byakugan "upgraded" to an advanced form, it must have ushered in a new age for the shinobi world. People must have become more aware of the spirits around them naturally, just from interactions with Hinata and the other Hyuuga, but at what point did hollows appear? Were they always there, or was it something that had just happened recently?

If that were the case, then what happened to all of those souls who died? Shouldn't they have all turned to hollows due to the fact that these nations were shielded from the jurisdiction of the shinigami? Who used Konso to get him and his friends to the Soul Society if shinigami didn't patrol this land?

He shook his head free of the questions, and tried to find Hanabi. He could feel her presence in a room behind the throne, behind the ornate double doors. There was another kind of energy swirling inside that room, and he was terrified that he couldn't figure out what it was.

"It's good to see you again, Uzumaki," Genisuke said, before standing from his ornate iron chair and addressing everyone else. "I truly wish that it was possible for all of you to see the shinigami's face, so that you would know that it was him who caused so much destruction today. Human affairs are no business of yours, shinigami!"

"Not when you've threatened the lives of my friends and enslaved my home with an unnatural power that doesn't belong to this world!" Naruto raised his wakizashi, prepared to fight at any moment.

" _You_  don't belong to this world!" the samurai fought back. "You're dead! Your time here was already over, decades ago. By what right do you have to call it yours? Are you trying to claim my territory?  _Our_ territory? Are the shinigami going to swoop in and usurp our authority to rule ourselves?"

"Of course not. I'm not affiliated with the shinigami anymore," Naruto said, gripping his sword more tightly. "I just know that what you're doing in the name of your false god, with the power of hollows, is wrong. And you're going to be judged for it!"

The black-haired man laughed. "Oh, you're _too_  funny, Uzumaki. It would be poetic for a god of death to tell me that Lord Jashin is not real, and to try to give your own judgment. Of course you wouldn't want to believe that; it would shake the very foundation of the belief that you and your kind have superiority over us."

Naruto just looked at him. "Superiority? Everyone is superior to a tyrant murderer like you!" He gestured around him. "Move them somewhere safe so we can end this, samurai. I don't want to kill anyone but you. No one else deserves to die."

The man frowned. "No one but me deserves to die. Tell that to Yasuo and Bunka. Tell that to the four of my generals that your friends disposed of." He looked to his subjects. "That's right. These shinigami have ended human lives. For some reason, I don't think that would be accepted by the Soul Society."

"It was self-defense."

"It was an injustice."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "You're one to talk about injustice. How many humans have you let the hollows devour to keep up whatever deal you've struck with them? How many times have you hidden behind your wall of invisible, disposable monsters and assured that none of the other nations could peace themselves together and rise against you? You make me sick!"

Naruto immediately began to chant, gathering power into his right hand, red light gathering over his palm.  **"Ye lord! Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Inferno and pandemonium, the sea barrier surges, march on to the south! Hado Number Thirty-one: Shakkaho!"**

As soon as he launched the full-powered attack, the red fireball heading straight ahead at the samurai in charge, Naruto jumped toward his enemy and flickered out of sight. He suddenly reappeared, smacking the red fireball to change its direction and then grabbing the samurai leader and hurling him upward in the direct path of the spell.

He immediately cast another barrier spell around the crowd, even the other enemy samurai, covering them in a green cube. The heat exploded in a fiery red light show, smoke appearing as bits of the roof came tumbling down through the cloud. It had all happened so fast that no one really knew what to expect, and even Genisuke had been caught unaware by his tactics.

He let the barriers fade. "Go! Get the hell out of here! I'm not playing around, and I'll let you die next time!"

The huge crowds fled in fear of him, the spiritually-aware conveying what just happened, as they all ran out of the room in different directions. Naruto made sure none of them passed through to the room where he expected Hanabi to be, casting a barrier in front of that room that stopped them from trying to go that way.

The samurai commander himself finally fell to the ground, his armor smoking and burned away in several places, but his skin was unharmed. He had been hurt by the power, but not by the fire itself, and it was impossible. As far as Naruto knew, the other Jinchuuriki didn't have healing factors like him.

 **Invulnerability to fire,**  the Kyuubi explained.  **My dear old four-tailed brother has an affinity for it. Should have went with something else.**

_Why didn't you tell me that?_

**I don't want you to die, but I never said I wanted to help you. Besides, it's more fun when you live and learn. This is the only small enjoyment I get in life.**

The samurai got up, cursing that his armor had been damaged in so many places, before he raised his sword. "I should thank you for protecting my people, but that was such a cheap shot that I'm pissed."

"And I should care about that  _because_?"

The man raised his katana and prepared to fight, charging his chakra through it. " _Because_  I'm going to kill you where I stand, with hatred as my weapon!" The chakra around the blade suddenly turned bright yellow, and Naruto knew that the different color was bad news.

"Tapping into the beast is dangerous," Naruto said, immediately calling forth his Shikai without the incantation. The chained dagger appeared attached to his armored bracer, and orange flash of light shining around him briefly. "It'll kill you and then the Yonbi will kill all of your people."

The man just smirked, most of the chakra contained in the blade. This must be some combination of shinobi and samurai teaching, to keep it within the sword, but Naruto knew it wouldn't last long. "I'm prepared to give it all up for Lord Jashin, if that is in his will!"

* * *

Shikamaru was dispatching hollows left and right, using his Shikai's warrior in interesting ways. Its speed to manifest basically wherever he needed it to was its only real ability, and he was using it to take out the hollows by aiming for the masks.

He concentrated on his grander plan in the forefront of his mind, running through the changing variables quickly. The more numbers they lost, the harder the hollows fought, and it was definitely starting to become harder to keep track of all the moves on the chessboard.

Tatsuki's powers were incredible for an untrained human like her. Easily on the level of a high-seated officer, maybe a Fourth or a Fifth Seat on a good day. With a lot of training and the ability to use more of her tails without feeling intense pain, she might become lieutenant-level. He hated imagining people on that scale because it didn't always make sense, based on the situation, but it was useful nonetheless to rank people. If it wasn't useful, the shinigami wouldn't have classed themselves.

Her flight ability was her most useful, and it gave her such awesome speed. It was nearly like she had her own high-speed movement technique like Shunpo, because it was like she was flickering around like a hummingbird or a wasp, changing directions at the drop of a hat in time to deliver a powerful punch or a kick to the mask of the hollows around her. It was truly incredible to see, but he had no idea how useful it would really be in the long run. It wasn't anywhere near as fast as Shunpo, and it was more reflexive than anything else.

They needed to hit the dragon hollow hard, together, and he had to be sure that Hiro wasn't going to try something. He and his monstrous steed had not moved yet, but even Tatsuki could feel the power building within the dragon.

Shikamaru was about to cry out when the dragon opened is maw and spewed a cackling, burning energy like a combination between fire and a Cero. It widened instantly and Shikamaru used Kakusayami to block it as he got out of the way, the energy diverting away from it like a rock in a river.

Tatsuki wasn't as lucky, but her reflexive speed managed to get her out of the focal point, the energy charring her skin and burning part of her clothes. She patted herself down, and realized very quickly that her skin was only mildly burned, despite being hit by the blast's heat, and she smiled at the test of her durability. Shikamaru was oddly amazed.

"It's going to take more than that, you dumb lizard!" She flew through the air, moving at her top speed, with her fist outstretched in front of her. Shikamaru manifested Kakusayami right below the dragon's neck, and forced it to slice upward at the same moment that Tatsuki landed a diving hammer-fist on the top of his mask. The creature screamed in agony from the dual attack, Tatsuki's fist actually making the cut from the Shikai warrior worse. It tried to burst more Cero-like flames, but Tatsuki yanked her leg back and then kicked the side of its face like a swinging pendulum.

The creature flew to the side, forcing Hiro to hold on tight, but the dragon started to dissipate when Kakusayami stabbed into its mask. Shikamaru was suddenly in front of the general as well. **"Bakudo Number Nine: Geki!"** Before Hiro could make a single hand-sign to induce an illusion, the samurai was surrounded by a red light. "Now, Tatsuki!"

The girl smiled and dove at the enemy out of the air, swatting away a hollow that tried to defend its master with the back of her hand and then delivering the strongest punch she had ever given to anyone. Hiro's armor looked like it had caved in for her fist, but due to the spell immobilizing him, he was forced to take the hit without being able to give. It was enough for his armor to pierce his flesh from the blow, causing blood to pour from the damaged plating.

"Call off the hollows! Now!" shouted Shikamaru, realizing the internal damage done by that attack was enough to do in anyone. "Or I won't end you life quickly!"

The genjutsu master smiled, teeth covered with blood. "You know, I honestly thought I'd put up a stronger fight. Feels a little lackluster. Oh well, at least I can do this." He flicked his tongue, revealing a seal. Without warning, three portals opened up around him. "I don't even think you can handle a few Gillian. Consider it my last act." It only took another moment for him to die, but Shikamaru didn't end his Kido because it was still holding the dragon.

The giant hollows pulled themselves from the sky, suddenly appearing out of the white mist spirals that were all too familiar at this point. Shikamaru had a look of pure terror on his face, and Tatsuki looked at him and grew even more terrified. "What do we do?"

"I don't know. One, I could handle. Three?"

* * *

The battle had been going on for several minutes, the two of them clashing sword against sword. Naruto was checking off the list of advantages and disadvantages the Byakugan gave, and in combination with the Bijuu-empowered sword, it was harder and harder to beat.

Each strike of their swords against each other was destroying the room around them, and at some point, Naruto had wound up on the side of the room with Hanabi's presence to his back, and he had been trying to avoid sending the battle toward that door behind them.

The human was strong, there was no denying that. He was fast and so adept in his movements, and his Byakugan was the most annoying thing in the world because Naruto couldn't surprise him at all. The shinigami couldn't remember where the blind spot was, that Neji had mentioned all those years ago, but it would take way too long to actually figure out.

"Take this!" The man shouted, slamming the end of his glowing yellow blade into the earth and immediately spreading a wave of burning lava toward him, setting the castle on fire. Naruto threw up a quick barrier and enforced it with his spiritual pressure, before jumping away from it and onto the air.

"That's a risky move," Naruto said, stopping the flow of lava with another barrier from where he stood. "You're going to burn down the entire castle at this rate."

"Why would I care?" asked the man. "I'll just build a new one when I'm done with you!" He suddenly sliced the sword through the air in horizontal arc, the yellow energy manifesting as a singular tendril of flame streaking toward him.

The former lieutenant blasted the chain forward, cutting through the tendril and trying to immobilize him. Genisuke's stolen eyes glinted in the light of the fires of his own attack and was able to intercept it with a slash of his Bijuu-powered chakra blade, nearly cutting the chains in half. Naruto had to retract it quickly because he could feel the strain on the chain links, and that didn't mean good news.

He rushed forward at his top speed, stopping behind the samurai and trying to stab him through by thrusting his arm forward. The second the man turned around, his own speed augmented by the Yonbi's chakra, he slammed his glowing katana against Naruto's Shikai dagger.

Naruto held the gauntlet up with both arms, realizing that if he didn't give his right arm proper support, the power would probably break it.

"No one has ever been able to stand against the my blade! No one!"

"Consider me the first!" Naruto shouted, angling his arm a little to the left and then suddenly extending the chain and willing it to angle back behind Genisuke. The attack managed to surprise him enough that he heard the clang against the back of the man's armor, but Naruto had to duck his own rapidly extending dagger when the man twisted out of their standoff.

Naruto wasn't going to be outdone, and he spun back up, grabbed the extending chain with his hands, and spun it around hard before flinging it at the enemy.  **"Rasentane!"**  The blade began to spin in mid-air, unleashing the rotating orange energy dart that formed around the dagger. Genisuke flipped around and swung his own sword to intercept, the explosion of the two colliding powers enough to send the samurai flying.

The orange sprout-like explosion obliterated the wall and a huge section of the ceiling, and Naruto himself was pushed back from the force as he retracted his dagger.

When the smoke and the rubble finally cleared, Genisuke stood up and grinned maniacally. "Bad mistake, you heathen! Die for your culture of false gods!"

The yellow power extended from the chakra blade and surrounded the samurai's entire body, becoming the samurai's own orange-yellow chakra cloak. A single tail emerged from behind him, flicking back and forth.

Naruto raised his hand, pointing two fingers in the man's direction. The incantationless Byakurai flew through the air, attempting to pierce his body, but Genisuke moved with impressive speed to block the strike with his katana. His eyes flickered with the power of the Byakugan, its visual prowess allowing him to see everywhere around him and eliminating Naruto's ability to catch him off guard.

"I'll defeat you where you stand!"

The tyrant ran forward, more animal than man, and Naruto retracted his zanpakutou, blocking an empowered fist with the bracer and realizing that his arm definitely couldn't handle the stress of defending against that anymore. The tail whipped out to hit him, but Naruto expelled more of his spiritual pressure and then pushed off of the ground, moving via Shunpo away from the jinchuuriki.

He took several deep breaths. The tension was high in the air, and the samurai was already adversely affecting the environment around him. Cracks formed in the ground where he stood, and something was on fire that had not been a moment ago. Genisuke suddenly shot toward him, and Naruto managed to stop the swing of his sword with his own counterstrike.

His spiritual pressure stopped the power behind the force, but when lava began to melt off of the man's sword, Naruto was hit on the top of his left sleeve. The searing pain was excruciating, and the shinigami only barely managed to jump to the side to get the lava to fall away before it burned through his arm completely.

The wound was thick, the smell of flesh heavy in the air, and Naruto had to grit his teeth and bare it. In one motion, he moved with Shunpo and began chanting within his mind. He moved in and out of an irregular circular path, firing his chain as fast as he could retract it. He fired weaker versions of his Rasentane, trying to intercept the one-tail cloaked jinchuuriki. Naruto had fought against a jinchuuriki who fully materialized his Bijuu into the outside world before, and imagining that this one had three more tails was terrifying. He had to do everything in his power to defeat Genisuke before he could unleash the Yonbi.

The chained dagger was continuously dodged or swiped away by the tail, and the speed with which Genisuke moved was incredible. Naruto kicked up his speed, trying to go harder than he'd ever considered before, and before long, it appeared that there were three Rasentane heading toward the man at the same time from three different angles. Naruto had moved so fast he was literally creating a limited number of speed clones, and he hadn't even had to tap into the Kyuubi to make it happen.

The man roared in response and then began to spin, Byakugan glowing, and his tail spun with him. In one moment, he'd created a Bijuu version of the Eight Palms Rotation Jutsu, but Naruto could inherently see its flaws; it was a poor copy of the original, even if he supplemented most of its strength with the Bijuu. The two powers collided with each other, the orange sprouting explosion blocked by the makeshift "dome" of swirling cloak energy.

The samurai leaned back and then spat, small bullets of lava suddenly peppering the sky. The air sizzled with heat.

 **"Enkosen!"**  He held out his hand and formed the spinning barrier in front of him, blocking the bullets from hitting him as he tried to shift through the air to dodge them. There were so many, coming too fast.

 **"Bakudo Number Sixty-one: Rikujokoro!"** Six horizontal rods of yellow energy appeared and tried to entrap the beast and hold it in place. It succeeded and pinned him in place, and it would have to do.

He stayed still as the man tried to scream and struggle. Naruto retracted his chain and aimed it directly at him. "Kusaritane!  **Rasentane!"**  The full-powered spinning orange energy missile collided with the creature, the explosion sprouting from the monster's location and turning into a tiny seedling of orange power, before smoke filled the room.

The samurai's screams came first, and Naruto had to hope it would work. But within seconds, he realized his mistake. The second tail had started to form, and the adding endurance had protected him.

* * *

Tatsuki flew close to the side of the pillar, trying to bait one of the Gillian into following her. "C'mon, you big lug, I'm here! Attack me!" The second she had its attention, she whipped through hand-signs.  **"Earth-Style: Earth Spear Jutsu!"**

Several rods of rock appeared from the pillar's material, and she had to concentrate really hard. Her control over this was very limited, and she wasn't even sure it would work. When they were aligned in front of her, she grabbed one of them and then fired the rest of them off like a line of missiles.

Her chakra must have lost its strength, because only two of them actually hit the Gillian but it did no damage at all. The others broke apart from the stress of trying to stay together without her control.

"Damn it," she said, spinning the weapon in her hands.

But before she could make her next move, she heard a voice shout high above her. "There she is! Archers!"

Tatsuki suddenly had an idea, flying straight up from where she stood and lining up with the Gillian's head. She concentrated on her spiritual sense, so she'd know when it would attack. Outside of the ruined castle was a group of probably close to one hundred samurai archers, all aimed at her. She smiled.

"Come on, do you really think that will work on me? You'd need to use yin chakra to hit me, and it's so hard to control that I doubt any of you have that!"

The commander practically spat. "Fine. Archers, use only yin chakra! Show her what Lord Jashin's teachings can do!"

The tips of their arrows must have been made of the same material as a samurai's sword, because the chakra was visible. On the commander's mark, they unleashed a huge volley of projectiles, all aimed in her general position, and she grinned that her plan had worked.

She waited until the last possible second before dropping from the sky like brick, avoiding their missiles and then catching herself before falling too far, looking up. Every single arrow made its mark in the hide and the mask of the Gillian, and while not a single one of them was anything more than a needle to him, a hundred of them hitting at the same moment was like a horrible form of acupuncture.

Tatsuki poured on her speed, attempting to get the better of the roaring creature. Using every bit of enhanced strength she could, she launched herself at the masked enemy, stretching her spear in front of her. Adding as much spiritual pressure as she could muster, she collided with the monster.

Her spear shattered on impact, but as soon as it did, she didn't let it stop her. She launched into a flurry of kicks and punches against the monster's mask, each powered by her reiatsu, but it wasn't working. She knew it wasn't working.

The creature swatted her out of the air, just as another volley of arrows attempted to skewer her. The Menos had inadvertently shoved her toward the pillar, and head first, and she cursed and flicked through hand-signs.  **"Earth-Style: Underground Shark Jutsu!"**

Tatsuki melted into the pillar, managing to collect her bearings before shooting up, flying almost as fast through the ground as she had in the sky. She plopped out of the pillar behind the army of samurai, who collectively had no idea where she was, nor did they know about the giant hollow standing in front of them.

She took a deep breath, trying to get her bearings. Nothing she had done against it so far had worked, beyond pissing it off. She was nowhere close to destroying it, and based on her spiritual senses, Shikamaru and Naruto were still fighting around her.

Her decision on what to do was made for her as the creature suddenly launched a Cero at the enemy army, who did not even know enough to get out of the way. She moved without question, landing on the ground for leverage and pressing her hands forward in front of her. She had to concentrate on the Bijuu's chakra, to keep it stable and steady and activated.

The second the Cero exploding against her hands and body, she cursed and was pressed backward, the ground erupting beneath her feet and spreading to a literal crater all around her. She slid along the ground for several yards, the pain nearly unbearable.

Another kind of pain erupted in her hand, gathering around her ring and extending throughout her arm and body. Tatsuki tried to hold onto her subconscious and stop herself from using any more of the ring than she could handle, but this was her self-preservation kicking in. The Nanabi knew this was life or death, and it chose life.

The Cero didn't stop, continuing to blast her and to try and destroy her fully. Her skin and muscles became closer to bone, a third and fourth wing started to form. It only lasted for a second more, but as soon as she felt herself pressing back against the energy, Tatsuki felt herself losing it, screaming in agony.

Her body stepped forward, covered completely in dark red chakra, and she basically pushed the Cero away from herself. The samurai had no idea why she was standing in front of them, but when yin chakra arrows started firing, she had to endure them. Two were embedded in her right shoulder, one of them clipping the wings. Most of them bounced off of her thick skin, but those that were a bit stronger still damaged her.

Getting attacked from both sides was definitely not good, but when the Cero finally ended, her instinct was to rush forward as quickly as possible.

Tatsuki blurred from sight and then slammed a fist against the monster's mask. She hit the same spot as many times as she could, cracks forming. The creature screamed in agony and tried to snap away from her, and it was just too much for the human. Her body started to shut down against her will, and the second she started to fall from the sky, she saw the giant hollow flee through the white portal.

* * *

The smoke had cleared from Naruto's attack, and the shinigami cursed as he saw two tails around the cloak, and Genisuke looked more beast than human. His body had become fully covered in dark red chakra, but to add insult to injury, the two Byakugan were still activated to only increase the man's abilities. The Bakudo was still holding him, for that small amount of time, but the second that the third tail began to form, Naruto's spell shattered like glass.

Bits of bone started to form, especially around the face where the Yonbi's tusks began to form. Muscles started to appear, and the hands greater solidified. The spines on the tails were starting to take shape, and its chest was starting to break through the skin. It looked eerie with the Byakugan contrast.

It shot forward, each of its tails whipping out and trying to skewer him, only bolstered by the samurai's katana. Naruto was starting to realize that his Shikai was not enough, but he couldn't go Bankai with Hanabi only so far away in the next room. His best bet was Bakudo, but it would take far too long to prepare a Bakudo that could hold it down.

 **"Hainawa!"** In a move that usually pissed off Tenten when they have sparred in the past, Naruto created a yellow cackling rope of energy in his left hand, the chained Shikai in his right. He whipped them both into action, and he knew his target.

Using the Kido as a feint, he tried to hit Genisuke's right side and entrap him. One of the three tails reached out and smacked it away. With Naruto's concentration, the Kido wrapped around the monster's appendage, and it would only take the next second to accomplish what he needed to.

He shot the chain forward, immediately wrapping around the jinchuuriki's sword and locking into place. He pulled with all his might, managing to yank the chakra sword away. It spun away through the air and embedded itself into the rubble behind them.

The monster roared and destroyed Naruto's Kido, and the shinigami prepared for it.  **"Hado Number Sixty-Three: Raikoho!"**

The yellow blast of energy arced toward the creature, and in one motion, Naruto used Shunpo to blast forward.  **"Rikujokoro!"** The rods of light bound the creature once more, if only for an instant, and it would be enough.

He burst through the next room where he found an unconscious Hanabi, missing one eye, lying across from a large, fixed portal that was probably the source of all this mess. Naruto noted the feeling of its spiritual pressure so he could find it again, before immediately picking up Hanabi and throwing her over his shoulder.

He burst through the door and zipped past, just as the jinchuuriki's tails collided with that entire wall and destroyed it. It roared, no longer intelligible, and Naruto had to do something to get her out of the way.

He jumped through the hole in the ceiling, moving at his top speed and fixating on Tatsuki and Shikamaru. They were together but Tatsuki was barely conscious, and he found them in an instant. They were at the base of the pillar, far below the castle and hidden partially in the tree line.

"Naruto! You found her!" Shikamaru said.

"Did you beat him?" asked Tatsuki, breathing heavily and rubbing burns and bruises on practically every inch of her arms and shoulders.

He shook his head, placing Hanabi on the ground beside Tatsuki carefully. "No. He's using the Yonbi's power and he's better with it than I had hoped."

"Is he still in control?" asked Shikamaru.

"No; it's all instinct. But I don't have much time to lose; I found a portal that leads to the inside of the dimension, and he's still up there. Can you keep her safe?"

"You need help?" asked Tatsuki eagerly.

"Even if you were at full strength and uninjured, I don't know how much good you'd do against someone with years of training and going all-out. Stay here and help Shikamaru protect her." He half-expected her to complain, but she didn't this time, just nodding.

The Third Seat of Squad Eight gulped. He looked worse than Naruto had ever seen him. "You need help keeping that portal open? Samui and Tenten are in there, you know."

Naruto shook his head, although he wasn't sure. "It looks like a permanent portal, not like the others. Probably Genisuke's personal one."

"Are you going to use Bankai?" asked Tatsuki, wincing from the pain on her arms. Naruto could tell that she wanted to see it in action, on some weird level.

"I've gotta get going; I'll save them, I promise."

And with that, he jumped back up into the sky, preparing to use every skill in his arsenal that he could.

* * *

Samui and Tenten were running through the white dimension, but there was something very wrong. The Gillian were not getting any farther away, and every time they thought they had run miles, Samui noticed the samurai they had found on the ground. The floor was still encroaching around her body, forming a solid pod around her.

"Shit. This isn't working," Samui cursed.

"Nope." The other shinigami turned and used her Shunpo, shifting her Shikai into the form of a pole ax with a diamond-hard edge. "Take this, you hollow bastard!" She dented into the creature's mask, the ax's sharpness strong enough to cut a huge wound on it. She attempted in the same breath to flip around out of the way of another Gillian's try at biting her, before transforming the weapon again into the form of a cloud of shuriken. She snapped her fingers, and every single one of them zipped toward the group, trying to hold them off long enough.

Samui sighed at Tenten's brazenness. She halted her own running, holding her two swords in Shikai at the enemy. Charging her spiritual pressure, she sent the humidity cloud toward the group of Gillian's head. The Menos started to charge up power in response, but Samui wasn't going to let them fire it off. "Tenten, move!" She clashed her swords together, the sparks igniting into a powerful electrical storm around the entire group of enemies.

Tenten managed to return to Samui's side just as Inabikari's attack mixed with the growing Cero energy. The explosion was deafening, each of the red spheres of power bursting in the faces of the Menos. The two shinigami braced themselves, covering their faces from the heat.

"Wow. Didn't expect that to happen," Tenten said, her weapon solidifying into a katana.

"I didn't either," Samui said with a grin, watching the hollows begin to dissipate. The group started to fall apart, but something started to happen. Immediately, the floor and the mist grabbed the Menos and halted their purification, and in one motion, they disappeared back into the floor.

"What the hell was that?"

"I don't know. But it's probably a good idea not to die here."

"No kidding," Tenten said, still hoping for rescue. If anyone would figure out their problem, Shikamaru would. But when the dimension started to swirl around them, Tenten immediately moved. "Run! It's getting us too!"

The two girls tried to outrun it, but it was impossible. Samui's right arm was hit first, and then her left leg. She watched in horror as a pod formed around her body, and Tenten didn't last much longer that she did. She tried to move with her left arm to cut out her body, but before she could even try, that was devoured by the power of the place again.

The moment that it formed completely around her, she lost consciousness. The last thing she heard was something unnatural that sounded like two voices, laughing together.

* * *

Naruto found the Yonbi jinchuuriki where he left him, almost like he was waiting for him to come back. Maybe Genisuke was still in there somewhere, conscious enough to keep him from going on a killing spree outside the giant castle. The samurai were trying to get their civilians off of the pillar, and it looked almost deserted. A quick glance of his spiritual sense revealed that most of them were far enough away that he felt at ease.

He stepped back on the ground in front of the man who had stolen the Byakugan, the man who had caused his former nation so much difficulty. Naruto ran a hand along the arm bracer, tapping his zanpakutou's dagger. "This is over now."

The monster roared and charged him, lava rushing at him with every step, but Naruto was done playing. If someone was hurt by his release, then he would do everything in his power to help them. But right now, he couldn't do it alone.  _ **"Bankai! Kusarimori Tenkai!"**_

The armor extended from his launcher, covering his upper body in plates of black and bronze and decorated with the orbs that were symbolic of how much power could be used for each of his moves. The dagger and chain had disappeared.

Naruto felt the power coursing through his veins, and he knew that it would be enough to destroy him. It had to be; as strong as the Bijuu are, there's no way they hold a candle to a Bankai.

"You're going to be upset that you pushed me this far." He pressed a hand on the ground, expelling his spiritual power through his palm.  **"Moritane!"**

In a single spiral formation, trees started to grow from his palm and throughout the room. They forced themselves out of the castle, destroying the walls and covering the top of the pillar, even running down the sides. He grinned at his handiwork, careful not to damage the portal.

The shinigami concentrated on the ground around the beast, forcing a tree to try to impale him and capture him, but the Yonbi Jinchuuriki used his tails to push himself off of the ground, angling directly for him.

 **"Kusariki!"** Larger versions of his Shikai dagger, attached with wooden chains, launched themselves from the trees around him. The man's Byakugan flashed, and he suddenly spun and used his tails to defend against them all in mid-air, still heading toward Naruto himself.

 **"Hado Number Four: Byakurai!"** The electric bolt pierced through the creature's defenses, long enough for several of the daggers to finally hit him. Naruto tightened his concentration, holding the tails and the body of Genisuke in place. Several more chains erupted from the ground, extending from the roots of the trees around him, before stabbing into his chest.

"I'll take back what you've stolen right now!" He reached his hands forward, and covering his hand in precise reiryoku, he removed the Byakugan from both eyes. The creature screamed and raged, trying to form coherent words, but Genisuke was gone; only the Yonbi was left.

The moment he felt the two eyes in his hand, he wrapped them in a protective enchantment and placed them in a pocket sewn into his belt, underneath one of the armored pads of his Bankai. It would have to be safe there.

The now-blind monster reached out in anger, suddenly breaking through one of the bindings and smashing into his chest. He flew hard through the air, but before Naruto could catch his bearings, one of the tails hit him even harder.

The second the white mist enveloped him, he cursed. "Shit. I can't let him close it!" Concentrating on the opening of the portal, he pulled and drew trees into the odd, too-white dimension, growing and stretching into it like they were all made of a single tree, moving in unison. They stretched over the portal, able to survive on his reiryoku alone, as they embedded themselves in the portal below. The orb on his chest was fading, but he still had several others he could draw from.

Genisuke had severed the chains that held him, before roaring and jumping toward the enemy. Naruto had no idea how he was able to see, but he must be able to sense spiritual pressure. Naruto tried to back up farther into the dimension and hide his own power, but it wasn't working. A tail lashed out and Naruto dodged it easily, and then the ape-like creature suddenly tried to punch him.

The shinigami threw up an arm with all the force he could muster, aiming for the creature's elbow. Naruto heard the crack and smiled, but the eyeless monster didn't appreciate that. Lava spewed from his mouth an entire wave of flaming rock.

 **"Juhitate!"** The two orbs on either side of his hip plates began to glow, as chains suddenly wrapped around him and formed a solid dome around him. The creature's heat attack was halted completely, and Naruto followed through by jumping into the air and snapping several more chained daggers in the creature's path.

It knocked them out of the way, suddenly growing more angry. In seconds, the Yonbi jinchuuriki started to form its fourth tail, its body fully realizing the control of the Bijuu, and Naruto was not about to let that happen.

Concentrating on his Bankai, he sent chain after chain after him, trying to bind him so that he could perform a finishing blow. The creature wasn't stopping, its body growing more ape-like by the second. When fur started to break through the chakra and covering the bits of muscle he could have seen before, he cursed.

He held out his arm, realizing that if this was going to work, he'd have to know the whole incantation.  **"Way of light and the heavens, break through the clouds and boom into the night! Pierce through the serpents of Hell and raze the Underworld! Hado Number Eighty-eight: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihou!"**

The sound of the giant blue electric spell was deafening, its power unworldly. The spiritual pressure threatened to obliterate his arm; this wasn't the kind of spell he was ready for. He had only mastered up to the level sixties; anything above was difficult, but he'd put a special emphasis on learning Danku. This was nearly impossible for him to control, and he would have never attempted it if he hadn't been in isolation within this strange dimension.

It collided with the beast, threatening to obliterate him. He could hear the Yonbi scream in agony, parts of Genisuke's own voice breaking through. He sounded pathetic, begging for the pain to stop, but when the spell subsided, Naruto found only the Yonbi, now with force-grown eyes, on its knees before him.

The massive creature was covered in electrical burns, and a giant hole tore through the shoulder where the blast had hit. Even though the monster had tried to fully summon itself, it was missing half of one of its tails, completely destroyed by Naruto's Kido.

The Yonbi rushed him, but Naruto could tell it was off. He summoned nine daggers, preparing to end it in one move.  **"Kyuurasentane!"**

In a dance of spiraling orange energy, the daggers aimed directly for several vital spots with more powerful versions of his Shikai's attack. As soon as the first made its mark on the creature's right arm, the giant leaf-like orange explosion rocked the jinchuuriki away.

The next two tagged the left and right legs, forcing the monster to land on the ground, explosions leaving each leg too scarred to move. The fourth clipped the right hand and blasted it off, leaving no trace. The next four hit simultaneously, each attacking the tails and pinning them to the ground before exploding.

Naruto ruthlessly let the last one hit the beast's chest, destroying its torso and abdomen. "It's over. You're finished. Don't bother getting up again."

The energy from the orange explosions, almost forming a vine of leaves in a circle around the beast, finally faded. There was almost nothing left, and Genisuke's mutilated body was dead.

He felt the surge of spiritual pressure from all around him for a brief second, before the dimension swallowed him up and covered him a white pod, before vanishing into the floor. Naruto only stayed silent for a brief moment, trying to recollect what just happened, but he could feel something familiar at the back of his mind.

He moved, trying not to think, and rushed toward the source. As soon as he found the two pods, fully closed, and the last pod on the floor, his eyes widened. Samui and Tenten were trapped in the dimension, not unlike Genisuke had been moments before. The white mist obscured their faces, but he could see feel their presences, however faint.

Immediately, he summoned the sword-version of his Bankai's dagger, cutting away the pods that held them. They were unconscious but alive, and as soon as he had them, a wave of relief settled on him.

He stared down at the third pod, realizing several things at once. Bunka was lying behind it, covered completely and still melting into the floor. In her hand was the gem holding the Sanbi, the Bijuu he had worked so hard to seal. He made the decision to try to cut her out of there, but before he could set Samui or Tenten down, the dimension surged again and Bunka was sucked into the floor, vanishing from sight.

"Damn."

When the mist began to swirl around him as well, he heard a voice talking together, saying a word he didn't recognize, and he shook his head in disbelief before blasting forward with the two girls over each shoulder.

Due to his connection the his Bankai's trees, he could feel the portal. The moment he left it, the dimension lurched behind him and suddenly closed. It cracked in half before shattering like glass, a small bit of white mist dissipating before his eyes.

* * *

"You sure you want to do this?" asked Tatsuki. "I can escort her inside if you don't want to deal with it."

The old woman frowned, an eye-patch covering her face. "You need to get to know your sensei more, young Tatsuki. Naruto has to face this himself."

"Well I'm going too," she said resolutely, and Naruto just smiled at her.

"Of course you are. All of you will." His hands still itched for his blade, but he wasn't sure why. Too much had happened in the past few weeks, and it felt like a constant fight. He kept expecting someone in samurai armor, or for another traitor of the Soul Society to show up and challenge him.

The clan compound was stretched in front of him, Hanabi at his side, the others behind him. It didn't take very long to attract the attention of the clan, several guards shouting for them to stop until the Clan Head could investigate.

"Oh come on," Hanabi shouted. "It's me. You don't need to go to all these extremes." She gestured them forward, and the group eventually headed into the main compound of the Hyuuga-Sarutobi.

Naruto felt the nostalgic feeling of home. Samui and Tenten were both still recovering, their steps wrought with fatigue; they had nearly died from reiryoku exhaustion because of their bodies attempting to fight back against the pod's effects. Shikamaru was relatively uninjured, he just looked exhausted. And Tatsuki had virtually every inch of her arms and legs covered with ointment and gauze. Naruto's burn on his shoulder, as well as several other small wounds were covered; the lava had burned through a tendon connected his shoulder to his elbow, and he hadn't noticed it due to the adrenaline.

Hanabi burst into the main room, where most of her immediate family were waiting. The Clan Head, Hotori, stood up from his seat, and before anyone could actually be glad that Hanabi was back, the man smacked his hands on the table.

Hotori stormed over to Naruto, inches away from his face. "You did this to her! You caused her to lose another eye!" He slapped Naruto once and then prepared to slap him again, but the shinigami neutrally raised his fist and opened it, revealing two Byakugan eyes wrapped in cloth and covered in an enchantment.

"Genisuke is dead. The source of his hollow army is closed from this world. You are free to run your lives as you see fit. I'm bringing these to you, as a peace offering." He dispelled the enchantment and Hotori took the cloth gingerly, a tear gathering in his eye. Naruto bowed and the rest of his company followed his example. "I am terribly sorry for all of the trouble I have caused, from every angle and every consideration. Even if I was not the one to blame for everything, my actions have left the remnants of the Hidden Leaf in shambles. I sincerely apologize and I hope that you may one day forgive me."

The man was not sure how to take Naruto, but the smile started to grow after a long moment. "Yes. I believe it would be unreasonable to stay mad at you forever." Hotori raised the cloth to inspect the eyes. "Especially after this. Thank you for bringing this home."

"It was my honor," he said, smiling.

"Get Hanabi to the medical tent. We need to reattach the eye as soon as possible." The woman didn't argue, following a woman and a man out of the room with Hanabi's stolen eye in tow. "We need to discuss the political ramifications here."

Naruto gestured to Samui and Shikamaru. "These guys have the plan there, not me."

Shikamaru started to outline what he had considered after everything was over. With the destruction of the main portal, the dimension lost its foothold in the Elemental Nations and the mist disappeared from the continent. Samui was going to act as the first shinigami on assignment until the Soul Society could set up a rotation to monitor it, and she was going to help in the rebuilding and re-establishing of the village system.

Naruto heard that bit and he'd not really considered it before, but something didn't feel right. It reminded him of what Genisuke had said, about the shinigami viewing themselves as gods who have superiority over mankind. He expressed his concerns. "I just worry that if we are too involved in how your system is set up, it just reinforces his view."

"Well, Genisuke was a religious zealot, so of course he'd say that. He'd say anything to defend his position," Tenten replied.

Everyone looked to Hotori, but the man seemed unsure. "I don't have a problem with your plan, Shikamaru, but maybe Genisuke was onto something."

One of the other clan members asked, "Surely not! These shinigami merely want to help."

"Of course they do. But we have to govern ourselves," explained Hotori, before looking on the others. "You understand this position, correct?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Yeah, when you put it that way, it sounds right."

"I promise that I'll only act as an advisor, internationally," explained Samui. "Only for as long as necessary as well. You may need to call for a summit, to set up the new system."

"It won't have the Bijuu anymore," explained Naruto, sharing a look with the other shinigami. The Sanbi and Yonbi were gone, and Naruto and Tatsuki had the Kyuubi and the Nanabi, respectively. The Ichibi, Nibi, Gobi, Rokubi, and the Hachibi were most likely in Aizen's possession, and that was scary enough on its own. "I can't sense any of them here."

Hotori nodded. "At least each of the villages will be on an even playing field in that respect. Although we're the underdogs this time around." He gestured around. "We're easily the smallest and least economically powerful. We basically sustain ourselves, and that's it."

Naruto smiled. "I'm sure you'll get back up to your former glory someday." He paused, realizing something. "I want to help you rebuild the village, when I get the opportunity."

Hotori smiled. "Of course, but that could be a long way from now. We'll have to do a ton of preparation and restructuring. Could be a good boon for the local economy and international relations though, to pull in outside contractors to start building." He paused, obviously excited by all of this new vision. "We'll have to pull in experts and try to make alliances with other outlying clans like ourselves."

"There are probably more of my old clan Nara out there," Shikamaru explained; Naruto remembered that he had fought one of them who had aligned with the samurai. "With the Nara, the Yamanaka and Akimichi are sure to follow."

Hotori frowned. "Relations are... strained with them. That's the only way to put it; they aligned with the samurai out of self-preservation. Most of our men can't stand each other."

The brunette shinigami frowned. "Maybe now that Genisuke's gone, you will find a way to work together again.

"Plus, you'll have a good relationship to the Hidden Cloud," explained Samui. "The new Raikage is a personal friend of mine."

Hotori nodded at all the information, and Naruto was slowly starting to tune them out. He kept up appearances, nodding and answering when asked with a direct question, but he found himself distracted in his thoughts.

He was glad to have saved the Elemental Nations and restored his relationship with the Hyuuga-Sarutobi. But in all of this time, Momo was still out there and he was no closer to finding a way to save her than he started. He remembered that Urahara had tasked himself with figuring out a spell, if not the spell, that could be used to create a Garganta, as a two-way street. That was Momo's mistake; she'd gotten herself trapped there without the materials she'd need to craft a new spell for an exit Garganta.

He had no idea if she was alive, or even if she was safe; there was no indication of anything. She was constantly on the back of his mind, but now she was on the forefront. The love of his life was trapped somewhere in a land full of beasts that would love to devour her, traitors that would love to skewer her. He grit his teeth at the memory of Aizen's smug face, towering over him.

They stayed for the rest of the day and well into the night. Hanabi's surgery went swimmingly, but it would take her a few days to wake up. Hotori and Naruto were on better terms that the shinigami could have ever hoped, and Samui was already preparing for her job as an international correspondent. Tenten and Tatsuki had sparred against each other, which was definitely a good show for the young children running around. Tatsuki had put up a good fight but was ultimately bested. Shikamaru had remained pensive all day, most likely thinking like he was about the situation they were in.

When it was finally time to say goodbye and head back to Karakura Town, Naruto was sad to go. He knew that things weer in good hands with Samui, but he had to be certain.

"Keep them safe; hollows are probably going to start appearing now. And if you think you hear of something involving Aizen, send a message to the Soul Society and I'm sure that Urahara will get the message."

She nodded. "I will. Be cool out there. I'm hoping when you get back, Urahara will have something concrete for you."

Naruto grinned, but it was with complete nervousness. "Yeah. I hope so too."

Tatsuki waved her goodbyes to the people she'd met, but Naruto assured her that she'd be coming back eventually. "It's not the last time you'll see them."

She looked excited. "Really? You're going to bring me back with you?"

"Why wouldn't I bring my student back to the place where she can learn the most?"

She just grinned. "You're right there. Ooh, I can't wait to kick Ichigo's ass!"

He peered at her. "Come on, we've got to get moving. Thank you for everything!" He said his own goodbyes before Tatsuki jumped back onto his back. "I half-expected you to beg to fly."

"I figured it would be pointless to ask. But can I?"

"Nope. Not after what happened during your fight with the Menos," he explained. "You tapped into more than you should; that pain your feeling all over? That's the effects of a Bijuu overloading your tenketsu. You can't rely on it; you need to give your body time to process and heal."

"Fine. Why aren't Shikamaru and Tenten heading back with us?"

"They are going to go back to the Soul Society. Their assignment is technically finished, but he wants to make sure everything settles down."

"Really?" she asked, as Naruto jumped into the air and began to air walk toward Japan, flashing forward every few steps.

"Yes, really. Now, can you keep your mouth shut, please? You're going to get bugs in your teeth."


	31. White War Prelude

Momo smiled brightly when she finally managed to disarm her opponent with only her zanjutsu. "I did it!" she shouted with excitement; some small part of her felt awkward after that exclamation, because it had been so long since she felt good about something.

Several days, that really felt like weeks, had passed in the Menos Forest. She had spent most of the time training, and other times working on possible incantations to open a Garganta to the World of the Living from this end. Her diet consisted of small rations of food pills that were harvested from the environment; Ashido had practically perfected the technique of shaving bits of the quartz trees in the many years he'd spent in Hueco Mundo. At least he could add certain things to it to make it look more like a meal.

After the Guardian of the Forest had been destroyed, Kano had started to open up and de-stress. The lines on his face had seemed to become less defined, and he smiled more. She hoped he would continue to improve and get himself out of the lonely place he had been.

A hint of a smile passed over the man's face at Momo's exclamation. "You did. Good job." He picked up his sword and sheathed it, before finally sitting down on the cot. He took a deep breath and exhaled hard, before trying to wipe the sweat away.

"Will you take me to the surface then?"

"Not yet."

"Why not? You promised you'd help me."

"And I will. But you aren't ready."

She wanted to argue but she bit her tongue. He was right, and she knew it. Her zanpakutou had not responded to her efforts with Jinzen since her last conversation within her mindscape. Some part of Momo was still offended at what her zanpakutou had even suggested. She had tried to tackle that question, over and over again: did she still love Aizen in some way?

She tried to imagine scenarios or conversations, but it always ended with the logical part of her brain wanting to slice him to bits and burn the pieces. The emotional part of her brain had no room for Aizen; every time she tried to think about what kinds of feelings she could have for her former captain, she just thought about Naruto and everything that had happened. And then just got even more pissed. She couldn't possibly understand where the emotions were that she supposedly felt for her former captain, other than righteous anger.

"You're right. What now?"

Ashido peered at her. "What do you mean?"

"What's the plan?"

"We're going to train until you get over the block you mentioned the other day, the one with your zanpakutou," he explained. "I can throw technical moves and stances at you and help you hone your reflexes all day and all night, but you won't truly progress any further with zanjutsu until you get on good terms with Tobiume."

"I can still use Shikai."

He nodded. "Of course you can. Shikai is a contract between the zanpakutou spirit and the shinigami; it can't be broken, even if the physical sword is damaged." He stood up and reached under his bed, pulling out a box that looked like it was made from branches of the granite trees. He pulled a cloth out and opened it up, revealing the shattered pieces of a blade. It looked like the standard Asauchi, straight out of the Academy. "This was my best friend's zanpakutou. He lasted longer than all the others who were sent on this suicide mission, but he never obtained Shikai. This is what happened to him because he didn't know how to talk to his zanpakutou." He wrapped it up and placed it in the box again, before putting it under the cot. "I'm not saying that you're going to suddenly lose Tobiume, Momo. But I  _am_ saying that if you aren't vigilant with maintaining conversation with your sword, it will show in your zanjutsu."

She looked at his pained face; it must have been difficult for him to share that with her. There were so many things she wanted to know about him and his struggle, and it made her wonder if she would follow the same path as him. Momo looked outside the small flap to the dark depths of the cavern underneath the desert, hollow reiatsu surrounding her from all angles if she focused. She didn't want to face that dark suffocation for the rest of her life.

"I understand."

"Good. I just don't want you to get hurt."

"But I do." The new voice suddenly caught them by surprise. Momo's hand found the hilt of her blade, and Ashido had already drawn his, on his feet and turned toward the door.

The source of the voice was a woman just outside the concealment barrier set up over the door, to protect their spiritual pressures from being detected. Momo initially didn't recognize the sandy blonde hair and the white uniform, but the identity hit her when she saw the familiar smirk.

"Temari?" She wanted to get up and greet her, but the words the woman had just said halted her. "What's going on?"

"You know this woman?" Kano asked, holding his zanpakutou so tightly his knuckles looked white.

"Of course she does," Temari said, almost bored. "You know me well, don't you, Momo?"

She frowned. "Well, honestly, not really. You were always so distant from anyone outside your squad. And you always hated Naruto."

The girl laughed. "Maybe that's true. I wouldn't say I  _always_ hated Naruto. But I do now, and that's all that matters."

"What business do you have with us?" Kano asked, a little too cordial than Momo would have wanted.

"Well, I wouldn't have business with you at all if the Guardian had held up his end of the bargain," she explained. "Lord Aizen offered to let him join his ranks, but you two obviously ruined that plan." Temari grinned, turning to Momo whose eyes widened at the mention of Aizen. "He was supposed to kill Kano and bring you to Aizen."

Momo grit her teeth. "You joined with him?"

"I'll follow my captain anywhere," the blonde explained simply. "You once had the same philosophy."

"That was before my captain turned out to be a murdering psychopath with an ego bigger than the moon." The woman before her was infuriating, and it made Momo wonder what she would have to be like to have ever gone along with Aizen somehow. It was disgusting thought to imagine that she could ever be like this woman.

Ashido looked at her with new eyes as the information poured in from the two girls' interactions. "Momo, what should we do?"

"You shouldn't do anything but let her come with me. If you do, I'll spare your life." The gleam in the blonde's eyes was impossible to ignore.

Momo set her jaw. "I don't think so. Ashido, let's take her down." The maroon-haired man smiled and shifted his stance in preparation.

* * *

The swing of his sword met the bone mask of the hollow, and without a single delay, it dissipated into spirit particles. It was almost unfair to the other side; Ichigo knew he was a Captain-Class fighter, and there was no way these small fry hollows would be able to screw up his town while he was around.

"All right, that was easy."

A shout suddenly called out, and he looked back over his shoulder to see a guy he'd never seen before, a shinigami with an afro, on another building watching the fight, or lack thereof. "Who the heck are you? Why are you dressed like a shinigami?"

Ichigo peered at him, bored. "Who are you?"

"Eh? Me? My name is Zennosuke Kurumadani! I am the shinigami on assignment here. After the last one was arrested and nearly executed, I'm better than that Kuchiki girl."

Ichigo picked up his badge and showed it to him. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki, Substitute Shinigami! Here's the seal of approval." It felt good to feel official, like he was really wanted by the Soul Society to do what he needed to do.

Zennosuke looked at it incredulously. "Seal of approval? I've never even heard of that!"

Ichigo frowned, staring at the wooden badge. "What the hell? This thing is useless!" It didn't seem to do anything but warn him when hollows were around. It had be something, didn't it? It was given to him by Ukitake, so it had mean something more than that. Rukia's captain acted like it was serious, so it must be. Zennosuke had to be just so small-fry that he didn't even know what it was.

He heard a single step before a small burst of reiatsu hit the edge of his senses. Reflexes from days of hard battles had worn into his psyche, so he spun and blocked a sword strike to the back of his neck with Zangetsu. The strike was weak, like whoever the opponent is was just toying with him. A quick analysis of spiritual pressure read something very interesting, but not decipherable.

It was then that he recognized the blonde hair and the school uniform, the dumb smirk on his face. "You're H-Hirako?!" He studied the man and the blade before him, bewildered. "Is that a zanpakutou? Who the hell are you?!"

The man's smile grew wider, if that was even possible. "Hush." The blonde put a finger to his lips. "Don't make a ruckus like that, Ichigo Kurosaki." The boy decided that he didn't like the way that sounded; it was sinister and spelled bad news for him. "With reiatsu such as yours, you can't lose your composure so easily. Otherwise, you'll be found out."

"'Found out?' By whom?"

"You're asking me who?" Shinji frowned. "Idiot. Do I need to tell you every little detail? Can't you figure it out for yourself?"

There was a moment of hesitation when several things hit Ichigo's spiritual radar. He pushed off of their blade lock, sending Hirako into the sky several feet.

"They're here..."

"Hirako, who are you?"

Shinji looked at him with derision. "See? I told you so! It's all because you kept your reiatsu unchecked like that!"

"I'm asking you who you are!" Ichigo shouted.

The other teen rolled his eyes. "You're so impolite. Do you really care that much about who I am?" When Ichigo didn't say anything, Hirako reached up with his left hand and placed it on the crown of his forehead. "Fine then! Here... take a look at this!"

A single downward motion revealed a mask covering his face, made of the same bone-like material as hollows. It looked almost like the headdress of a pharaoh, with a skull-like face. Shinji held it by the bottom jaw, covering only half of his face.

"Do you know what this is?!"

Ichigo was terrified at the implications. "A hollow's mask?"

"Correct!" The man raised his sword to place it on his shoulder. "A zanpakutou and a hollow's mask. Do you get it?" A look at Ichigo's face revealed the resounding answer to that. "I'm a shinigami who has crossed over into the realm of hollows."

Ichigo remembered what it felt like on Sokyoku Hill while fighting Byakuya, the feeling of being on auto-pilot while something else controlled your body. The pure instinct, the darkness... it was terrifying to imagine and somehow, Ichigo knew what Shinji was about to say.

"I'm a Visored, the same kind as you." Shinji's grin was powerful. "Join us, Ichigo. You don't belong with them."

* * *

Orihime grinned to herself and her creation. A giant Reuben broccoli tomato paste sandwich with a side of pickle chips and Miso soup. She had really outdone herself; it looked fantastic, like it had just come out of a magazine.

She glanced up at her reflection in the window above her sink, the light from the outside shining just enough to show the outline of her shape. The city looked as it always did, but ever since she came back, something felt... off. Like she didn't quite belong anymore. Her eyes flickered to the twin hairpins, symbols of her power and the love of her brother. They were the reason why she didn't belong, and that seemed wrong to her.

 _This must be what Ichigo feels like,_ she realized.  _And Chad. And Uryuu..._

It was like something hit her in the chest and took her breath away. It was the same type of feeling she had every time she got to school in the morning and saw the Quincy's empty seat. It took three days for her to realize that he was never going to return to that seat, that he was never going to come back to his human life.

"Don't worry," Chad had said that day, with her in tears against his shoulder. "I know it's sad. But he's passed on now."

"He's probably in some far-off district of the Rukongai, setting up a thriving sewing business," Ichigo had said, with a sort of forlorn look that Orihime wished she knew how to decipher. "If Hisagi notices them, his designs will end up on the cover of  _Seireitei Communication._ He'll be famous!"

She remembered their words and felt better, but part of her still wanted to give him a bite of her admittedly experimental sandwich. She knew, deep down, that it was stupid to imagine that they had known each other long enough to have a close bond. She had known Ichigo the longest out of their group of friends, but even she had to know they were just friends. Orihime barely knew Chad, and she had known Uryu even less.

But they had fought together, had been through trials and tribulations that most people would not even be able to imagine. Orihime knew they would always be close, through thick and thin no matter what. She would go through the entire ordeal of rescuing her friend Rukia a thousand times over.

Her body trembled in the memory of what had happened to her. After nearly being attacked in Rukongai to killing an opponent and bringing them back to life to protecting Sakura from that explosion in the Squad Twelve captain's lab, she had not contributed a heavy deal. Ichigo had fought tooth and nail against several opponents, and she had struggled against one of them.

She needed to do more, but what exactly could she do? If she had the opportunity, would she be able to bring Uryu back from the dead? Thinking about Chad and about Ichigo and about Tatsuki, she pledged to herself to unlock the secret of her powers so that no one would ever have to be hurt again as long as it was within her power.

Something suddenly hit her sensors and the feeling of it made her incredibly queasy.  _A... hollow and Ichigo are fighting? No, a shinigami and Ichigo are fighting. Or... something else?_

Someone burst through her door, and she yelped in surprise. The short-haired brunette girl suddenly appeared, looking frantic. "Did you feel that? Ichigo's fighting someone! Let's go!"

"Tatsuki!" she said, running over to try to hug her. "You're back from your trip."

"Now, seriously. Ichigo's fighting someone! We can help!"

Orihime peered at her friend, but one quick feel of the spiritual pressure in the air made her realize something more was going on. There were several signatures active at once. Ichigo was fighting someone with similar intensity to his own reiatsu, but there was something foreign about it. But another kind of reiatsu, definitely strange and off-putting, was in the air, and it was intense and on the complete other side of the town.

"I don't... know if it would be a good idea for us to get in the way," she muttered, knowing she couldn't handle it.

"We wouldn't be in the way! We can help!" Tatsuki declared, but when Orihime continued to look uncertain, the girl huffed. "Okay, fine. I'll go by myself."

When the girl started to leave, moving faster than she had ever moved before, Orihime frowned. "Wait! Tatsuki!"

The brunette ran up the wall and back onto the balcony in front of her door. "You coming?"

She shook her head. "No. But you aren't either. Stay with me and get out of their way. There's nothing we can do against these guys. They are stronger than we are, on energy levels alone, and there's something wrong with their reiatsu."

Orihime had always been very perceptive; she knew how to gauge how a battle would end, and this would not end well for either of the girls.

Tatsuki wanted to argue, but Orihime shook her head again. "Trust me on this. Let's wait it out. Both of these enemies are stronger than even you, Tatsuki. I've never known Ichigo to lose, and it feels like someone else really strong has intercepted the other signature."

Orihime wished she knew how to describe what she felt about these hollow-like opponents, but they were beyond the level of either of them. Orihime herself knew she wouldn't be able to handle it, and there was no way she was going to let Tatsuki run to her death either. So Orihime would stay here and protect her.

"You and I are going to train to get stronger," she said to the other girl. "Next time something like this happens, we'll be ready."

The other girl smiled. "So why don't we start training now?"

* * *

Wind blew through his hair and cooled his mood, as he wandered through the city in his gigai and headed back toward Urahara's place. He figured it would be a good time for a walk to clear his head, after learning from earlier that Urahara still did not have any information for him about a spell. Apparently, the shopkeeper had received all of their notes from Kira, who was eager to help after everything that happened in the Soul Society. Naruto had to make sure they hadn't been tampered with, because he still didn't trust Kira. After learning that both Ichimaru and Temari had betrayed the Soul Society alongside Aizen and Tousen, Naruto had a hard time trusting any of the information he was getting, especially from people he wasn't closed to.

He had read over the spell, and realized yet again that it had all come down to one word to fit the incantation. The word was the key to directing the energy into the dimensional barrier and solidifying the rip into a traverse-able space, and without it, they'd just get stuck in the Dangai forever.

He'd passed clothes shops and law offices and huge buildings that looked like marketing firms. Most of it didn't make any sense to him, and he really had no intention of learning. The World of the Living was far removed from anything he could have imagined; Naruto wondered if he would ever truly get used to the idea of being in exile here forever. Thinking about the Elemental Nations made him homesick, but places like Karakura Town or Tokyo or Hong Kong felt alien to him.

Something suddenly hit his senses hard, and it took him several seconds to realize that it was very close. The pressure was very strange, unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Naruto wished he knew how to truly describe it; the closest he could say was that it was like there were two distinct signatures blurred into one haphazard whole.

He dashed towards it, deciding not to drop his gigai and Shunpo toward the source. He needed to improve his speed in this base form anyway, especially if it became more common for him to live in this form. Urahara had given him a false body that didn't come with any of the pitfalls of usual gigai; he may as well get used to it.

He heard the sound of shouting before he saw the source, but he couldn't decipher anything coherent. He passed through a quick alleyway and witnessed a shinigami destroying a very tall hollow carrying a massive sword that was easily the size of a building. Naruto's eyes widened.  _A hollow carrying a zanpakutou?_

He recognized the man before him; Isshin Shiba had been Toshiro's old captain after all. Ichigo was there, although in human form; if he looked closer, he could see the subtle difference that revealed that his body was inhabited by an artificial soul. The real Ichigo was in spirit form fighting someone else, and that someone else had blurry spiritual pressure too like the hollow with a broken mask that was now dissipating after the former captain's slash.

The man turned and started walking away, and he was going to go talk to him when he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Uzumaki." Naruto turned to see Kisuke Urahara smirking down at him. "Let's go talk to Isshin. You remember him, don't you?"

Naruto nodded. "Uh yeah. But he disappeared almost twenty years ago. What's going on?"

Urahara just smiled. "All will be explained in due time."

* * *

The walk through the park was soothing, relaxing, but it was so late that it was a bit lonely too. Something about Chad had always craved to be lonely, although he didn't really know why. He supposed it just introversion and that it was a part of his personality, but recent events had made him wonder if there was something more to it than that. Even Abuelo had commented that there was something inherent in his nature that separated him from his peers and manifested in interesting ways. Fighting had always given him an outlet for that frustration, that hatred; it drove him to be distant from even those who showed interest in him.

His muscles were sore from the extensive training he had put himself through from nearly the moment he returned from Soul Society. He'd tapped into whatever high-speed movement technique he had as part of his power-set, which manifested as green light around his legs. He'd been trying to take that green light a step further, to see what else it could do (if anything), but he'd had no luck. He felt he had improved a lot from the moment he clashed against Captain Komamura's bankai, but there was still something holding him back. He felt like there was a next step, like he was on the cusp of unlocking something big.

He had pondered what it would take to ask Abuelo in the Rukongai, now that he had repaired ties with the Soul Society. No one knew him better that Oscar Joaquin De la Rosa, and perhaps the man could give insight into his grandson's abilities even if he had none of his own. But Chad knew it would be impossible to find Abuelo unless the Seireitei were to make it a top priority, and they had enough on their plate.

The moment he heard the rip in the sky and the burst of spiritual pressure, he knew it one hundred percent.  _A hollow!_  He flipped around, the liquid-like manifestation of his abilities melting over his arm. He took a stance, already starting to gather the power around his right shoulder. A white hollow, much larger and more potent than he was used to, stepped out of the Garganta before it snapped shut.

It was shaped very oddly, its hide almost looking like it was a robe and its arms looked like they were made of some kind ribbon-like material. Its head was similar to a pointed hat, and in all honesty, it reminded Chad of some kind of Edo period priest. The hollow hole was in the very center of its body, and its tongue elongated out like it was ready to lash at him in any second. The mask on its face was partially cracked on the left side, revealing a very human-looking jaw-line.

The tongue lashed out without warning, and Chad took off with a burst of spiritual energy around his feet, green light flickering into existence. He landed on the air itself for a split second as the tongue collided powerfully with the ground and kicked up a cloud of dust. Chad touched back on the ground and felt the reiatsu building within his arm.

 **"El Directo!"** The bright blue blast of energy collided with the hollow's right side, destroying its arm completely. It screeched in pain before instantly regenerating, and then rushing at him again.

Chad rolled out of the way before pushing off of the ground like a springboard, and then aiming a powerful punch to the creature's mask. The blue energy expelled from his fist the moment he made contact, completely destroying the monster's upper body.

He dropped to his knees, breathing deeply and nursing a cut on his left arm he didn't even notice he had received.  _I need to be faster. Stronger. More durable. More accurate._

A surge of spiritual pressure alerted him just in time to throw up his un-armored fist and slam the monster's lower half to the ground. He stood up and realized very quickly that the hollow had actually been two in one, and without a second thought, he pushed reiatsu into his legs and punted the hollow into the air.

It flew several yards into the sky, as effortless as it would be to throw a football, and with another charge of energy, he fired another well-aimed blast from his right fist.  **"El Directo!"**

The giant attack consisting of pure condensed reiryoku exploded and enveloped the creature, destroying it entirely. Chad took several deep breaths, feeling elated that he'd defeated a strong opponent. There were no third segments, and its ability to regenerate did not work. He realized very quickly that that had been easy, but there was so much room for improvement. If he managed to train in the right way, he would easily have been able to destroy that hollow in one El Directo.

He needed to do more. Ichigo would never have a problem with that hollow, and Chad wasn't going to get left behind.

* * *

The lone figure stepped out of the shadows, his white uniform feeling tight on his chest. The change of clothes made him feel stronger, with more purpose; although he'd never wear the hat that the insufferable girls had tried to get him to wear. He'd never be caught dead in it.

The new glove was more loosely defined, the cross-like symbol dangling from his wrist. His fingers were visible, the calluses that usually adorned them much harder than before after extensive training.

He analyzed where he was, inside the tunnel where he'd forced Orihime to flee into during the whole invasion. He was just outside the lab, and he could feel the presences just beyond the door. His own presence was completely masked, courtesy of the cloak he was wearing over his entire body, shadowing his face.

He peaked into the next room, surprised to see that there was no sign that an explosion had ever occurred. The captain that had caused the people in his life so much pain and misfortune, the captain that he had already tried to kill once before, was standing over the body of his lieutenant, her conscious form apparently being rebuilt.

Uryu didn't even want to imagine that, being a creation of this bastard, but he wouldn't have to worry about that any longer.

In an instant, his bow formed, taking the appearance of a solid grey and silver construct, with a web-like shape. It was compact, no more than a foot across altogether and attached to his wrist. Uryu raised his weapon and stepped into the room, pulling an arrow with his left hand. The shimmering white light interrupted the light from the computer screens all around him.

"I should have killed you before, but now it's over. Pray to your Soul King for guidance and protection in the next life!"

Captain Kurotsuchi turned around in time, his face full of actual terror, as an single glowing blue and white arrow landed between his eyes. Uryu concentrated and fired another shot at the man's heart, all before the dead man could fall. There was no turning into liquid or somehow regenerating. Mayuri Kurotsuchi was dead, already vanishing into nothingness from Uryu's arrow.

He pulled a tool from his belt, a jar full of tiny beads given to him by BG9 and powered by his reishi. He snapped his fingers to ignite the pure reishi filling them, before throwing them at each computer. Instantly they exploded, and the reishi would flood Mayuri's personal network of computers and destroy all of those as well. Most of the SRDI's computer network would be left intact, but all traces of the last few minutes would be gone from any record. They'd have almost no compelling evidence to pin this on a Quincy, and that was the way he liked it.

He was going to turn to leave, but a single voice seemed to choke to life. He raised an eye at the woman on the table, and there was something inherently wrong with her and her spiritual composition. She reached out for where her father once stood, a look of incomprehensible horror on her face.

"Nemu," Uryu muttered, before raising a hand and preparing another arrow. "I hope you'll forgive me. But it would be a mercy to end your life and your suffering, considering your condition."

The arrow was embedded in the girl's heart before she could move another muscle, and Uryu ultimately frowned. Killing Kurotsuchi was easy, but killing Nemu... That was hard. He had to protect his identity, and the best way to do that was to eliminate her. Besides, it would look good for the others when he returned to them; he killed a captain and a lieutenant in practically the same breath, and one of those experimented on their kind. This was justice being served, not murder.

And it was a sad existence to live like Nemu. He was putting her out of her misery. Her body was missing half of its vital parts, and only the artificial soul that made up her identity was truly intact. Now it was gone, and the body was disintegrating in the same way that Mayuri had disappeared.

He heard voices, loud voices, and it took Uryu seconds to blend into the shadows and let them swallow him whole with a wave of his hand.

He was proud of what he accomplished today. Most of the Wandenreich would be pleased, but Uryu was admittedly a little worried. Certain members of the group would dislike what he did, but others would think there was plenty of provocation for justification. Either way, the armies of the Soul Society were that much weaker now, and that was all that matters.

* * *

"How are Toshiro and Matsumoto doing?"

The awkward silence was broken by Isshin's question, who sat at the other side of the empty table from Naruto. The blonde stared at the man he really didn't know very well, while waiting for Urahara and Yoruichi to walk back into the room.

"Fine, I guess," Naruto said, confused by the sudden question. "I assume you know all about what happened in the Soul Society?"

The man nodded, and the other was glad he understood. He didn't want to have to relive how Aizen used Toshiro and Momo, two of the closest people to him in the world.

"How's life in exile?"

Isshin met his solemn glance. "You'll get used to it. Surround yourself with people you trust. Don't go it alone."

Naruto nodded and took his advice to heart. He really didn't know what he was going to do with his time when this mess was over, but he hoped Isshin's words would help.

The moment that Yoruichi and Urahara returned, the two of them were joined by Tessai, who was carrying a tray full of tea for everyone. Naruto smiled at the offer and took a cup off of the tray, as the others sat down. All of these people were older than him and had decades more experience; he wondered if he was really welcome here, because it was clear that these guys were in the know and he wasn't.

"All right, we have quite a bit to discuss," Urahara explained.

"Aizen's research has obviously had results," began Isshin. "I've seen this kind of spiritual pressure and type of enemy before. He intends to create an army of Arrancar."

"Arrancar? What's that?" asked Naruto.

Yoruichi leaned back. "A natural Arrancar is a hollow that has willingly broken its mask in order to obtain shinigami abilities."

"But it's obvious now," Kisuke said. "He has the Hogyoku. He'll have an army in a matter of weeks if he doesn't have a sizeable one already, without all the pitfalls of natural Arrancar."

"It's not a coincidence that Aizen sent Grand Fisher either," Isshin said with hatred dripping from his tongue. "He wants to test my son by using the hollow that killed my wife, but he obviously didn't count on me regaining my powers."

Before Naruto could ask the obvious question, he realized it very quickly. "Ichigo... Ichigo is your son? No wonder he looks like Kaien. They're cousins!"

Isshin nodded. "Yeah. Don't ask for the details, Uzumaki, because you aren't going to get them. All you need to know is that Aizen has been gunning after my family since before my children were born."

"Some kind of personal vendetta? What did you do to him?"

The man rolled his eyes. "I  _wish_  I had done something to him. This man manipulates everyone around him like they are pieces in his fucking game of shogi." Naruto couldn't disagree with that; he was a pawn in that game as well, even if he didn't want to admit it.

"Ichigo doesn't know about his father and we intend to keep it that way," Yoruichi explained, pointedly looking at Naruto. "But you all felt him, didn't you?" Urahara, Tessai, and Isshin all affirmed it.

"As I expected, Ichigo is a Visored, and they are courting him," Urahara explained, before looking to Naruto and taking a sip of his tea. "The Visored are shinigami who have obtained hollow powers. Due to some odd circumstances, Ichigo has both shinigami and hollow abilities."

"And those hollow abilities are out of control," added Tessai.

Yoruichi nodded. "Shinji and the others will help him gain control over it. If he doesn't, then we'll have to think of some other way to defeat Aizen."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What do you mean?" He could almost feel the hypocrisy filling the air. "Why are you propping Ichigo up as the only one who can defeat him?"

Urahara frowned. "I don't like it either, but Ichigo hasn't witnessed Kyoka Suigetsu's perfect hypnosis-"

"Bullshit. You're not going to play shogi with people too," retorted Naruto. "I fought with Aizen on Sokyoku Hill. At Ichigo's current level, Aizen could just appear in front of him at any time and release his shikai. We can't rely on that. It would be ridiculously easy for Aizen to eliminate that weakness."

The shopkeeper looked at him curiously. "You're right. But I know Aizen. He wouldn't want to do that. He wants a challenger, someone to prove his strength against."

Naruto shook his head. "No. You're not doing this right at all. I don't care if Aizen has all of the cards in the deck, you don't play his game. We need counter-measures, we need to be acting and not reacting to his plans."

Isshin smiled. "I like your spunk, kid."

"He's not wrong," Yoruichi explained. "So what do we do? How can we change the way we're going at this?"

"I'm not going to lie, Kisuke. I've never liked this idea of Ichigo being the trump card." Isshin was an honest man that Naruto could learn to like.

Urahara stared evenly at Naruto for a long time before he finally grinned. "I'm sure we can come up with something."

* * *

Momo adjusted the grip on her sword, her stance loose and prepared. It was the most basic stance that Ashido had been able to teach her, a variation of the Academy's stance that was more prepared for real combat. She was almost glad for the fight, because she got a chance to prove her training had been worthwhile.

"This is pointless because you're going to lose," the blonde said simply. "It's obvious. Just stop now and you'll get to live."

"You've already made that deal once, and it didn't work the first time." Kano suddenly shot forward, bursting through the barrier with a slash and colliding with Temari's own blade with a slash of sparks.

The woman suddenly flickered out of reach to behind Kano, but Momo was there as well, slashing at the woman's lower back. Temari expertly flipped her zanpakutou's grip and parried the blade behind her, before spinning her entire body on her left foot and slamming her right into Momo's chest.

The brunette tried to recover as she heard the clash of blades from Kano and Temari again and again, huffing before preparing another attack. She needed to prove herself against this woman, so she settled for a new type of maneuver. She waved Tobiume diagonally, but waited for the moment that Temari would try to block and spun out of the movement and into a stab.

The second her blade felt the purchase against Temari's chest, the blonde leaped backwards.

"Damn." The blonde moved her arm in a circle to make sure her movement wouldn't be impaired, and in another single moment, Kano and Momo aimed at her right and left sides respectively. "I didn't think I would have to do this, but prepare to die.  **Weave, Sureddokumo!"**

Her zanpakutou suddenly entered Shikai with a burst of yellow energy, and her sword shortened and branched at a forty-five degree angle into three equal parts, the two side parts had a square end and the middle one a pointed end. In between each of the branches was a thin almost invisible bronze layer of what looked like thread, with a visible network connecting them like a spider's web.

She spun around with her zanpakutou outstretched, and a thin layer of bronze air suddenly burst around her, several lines almost like she had draped herself with a moving net. Momo and Ashido were blown away by it, and when Temari was sure she had defended herself, she smiled and waved the zanpakutou in wide horizontal arcs.

An entire "web" of bronze wind moved from her sword, and her reiryoku was easily guiding its spread. It was incredibly fast, and Momo could only barely avoid getting sliced in half. She marveled at Ashido's quick movements, aided by his extreme reflexes. It inspired her to get out of the way of the network of guided wind.

 **"Snap, Tobiume!"** Her own sword changed shape as she jumped up into the air, already gathering an attack and firing it quickly. The pink fireball rocketed toward the woman, but Temari swung her zanpakutou and the bronze winds responded by creating a shield of wind in the shape of a spider's web. Momo fired again as she landed on the ground, just as Temari's counter attack hit Ashido head on and slammed him against the wall behind him.

The blonde shinigami traitor leaped out of the way easily, but the indirect explosion caused her to lose her balance. It was all the moment that Momo needed as she rushed in with Tobiume using Shunpo.

The two blades collided in a burst of wind and heat, neither one of them wanting to back down. Pink fire swirling off of Momo's form as she tried to monitor her anger, and within seconds, she felt she had the upper hand in their deadlock.

"You're not going to win!"

But when Temari just smirked, something obviously didn't feel right. "Check out Kano, Hinamori."

She flipped around in warning and saw someone with red hair and a bone mask on his forehead holding Ashido in his palm, choking him as sand trickled down from the deserts above. Kano was completely unconscious, and probably struggling to breathe, and she barely had time to analyze the man's appearance before she cried out. "Ashido!"

Temari slashed downward, and in a moment of excruciating pain, the brunette's left arm was severed from her body. A burst of bronze wind enveloped the two of them once as Momo dropped to the ground, barely able to stay awake as blood gushed from her. Everything was just wrong, incredibly wrong. How was it possible that this happened?

"Don't worry, I won't kill you. Can't say the same for your friend over there," the woman said, already applying medical Kido. "I'll keep you alive just enough."

Momo weakly turned her head to see the redhead's grip tighten on Kano's neck, and just before it appeared that his body was going to stop reflexively struggling, Temari cleared her throat. "Gaara! He's down. No need to kill him."


	32. Masked Offensive

Toshiro stared at the peaceful clouds overhead; they were traitors to the seriousness of the situation, the tension in the air. He supposed he could release his sword and force the weather to match his mood, but that would have consequences he didn't want to imagine. Aizen was preparing for war, and his two closest friends were caught in the cross-hairs. The youngest captain wanted to destroy the traitor and his cohorts with his own hand.

"I see. I'll leave immediately." He turned as the messenger disappeared, telling him that the Head Captain requested their appearance for an emergency meeting of the highest magnitude. Had Aizen made his next move already?

"Captain, should I come with you?" asked Matsumoto, her worried expression cutting through his reverie. She was still hung over from the night before, but his lieutenant did know when to be serious.

"No. Captains only," he explained, before passing her a ream of paper. "Take care of this, would you? Squad Seven has requested aid from us in managing the new jurisdictions." It still amazed him that the Elemental Nations had seemingly popped out of nowhere, thanks to Naruto and a few others.  _Figures Naruto would find that mess._

She nodded, but looked disgusted. "Don't you have anything else I could do that isn't paperwork?"

"Not right now," he explained. "This is on the Soul Society's high priority list." She frowned before finally stumbling over to the desk and plopping down. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't drool on my desk. Use your own." Matsumoto groaned something unintelligible as he headed out of the office, disappearing with a burst of Shunpo.

By the time he arrived, almost everyone was gathered. It pained Toshiro to see how many vacancies there were, a signal for how disadvantaged they truly were. Squads Three and Nine had no representatives, despite the lieutenants working as Acting Captains. Squad Five's duties were essentially being shared among all the squads due to the absence of Momo and the betrayal of Sosuke Aizen. Toshiro wanted to spit in outrage, honestly.

"Where's Captain Kurotsuchi?" asked Komamura, confused by the scientist's empty seat.

"Is he really that late? I thought my lieutenant was bad," Toshiro muttered, truly confused. The order had been issued simultaneously only minutes ago, but under emergency conditions, he was sure the man would have left the lab fast enough to get here on time.

The Head Captain walked into the room and knocked his cane on the ground to stir order, silencing everyone. "Thank you all for gathering here on such short notice. With that formality out of the way, we shall now begin.

"After our brief respite, the Soul Society is in a state of emergency once more, and I fear Aizen has made his first move. Captain Kurotsuchi's lab was destroyed, his computer network sabotaged, and several untraceable records in the Daireishokairou archives have been wiped clean through a backdoor into Kurotsuchi's network. Captain Kurotsuchi and Lieutenant Kurotsuchi have vanished."

Murmurs flooded the room, and Toshiro stared at the empty space to his right. Soifon was the first to speak up formally. "Has he betrayed us to join Aizen as well? It would certainly fit his character." The Squad Two Captain had never been fond of the admittedly demented man; no one had, really, but many respected his ability to invent and calculate solutions.

"He might have been a criminal in the past, but I doubt he would jeopardize his position like this," Kyoraku suggested. "He wouldn't want to go back to the Maggots' Nest."

The Head Captain cleared his throat. "This security breach into our archives has disastrous implications. Third Seat of Squad Twelve, Akon, has assumed control of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. He hasn't been able to trace any kind of cause for the security breach, but he did find the backdoor I mentioned previously. Kurotsuchi's digital fingerprint was easily traceable, but the trail ran cold."

"Did the motion detectors in the SRDI discover anything odd?" asked Captain Unohana, her presence a calming terror to Toshiro.

"His scanners were destroyed in the attack and the records were damaged beyond repair," explained Yamamoto. "There is no way to tell if he destroyed his own lab and betrayed us, or if a saboteur entered the lab and killed both of them and destroyed the evidence."

Captain Kenpachi's face twisted with delight and the prospect of the enemy, and Toshiro wanted to roll his eyes. "The Shakonmaku was not breached, so I doubt it would be an enemy," Ukitake supplied. Toshiro was certain everyone would have immediately been notified of the barrier around the Seireitei being destroyed; after all, the Ryoka had blasted their way inside before.

"That might be true, but we can't rule Aizen out of this," explained Toshiro. There was just no way that the situations weren't related. "Is it possible a Senkaimon was opened if Kurotsuchi left the Soul Society of his own accord?"

Everyone seemed to be surprised by that. "It's definitely a possibility, Hitsugaya. Can we check for that?" Kyoraku asked the Head Captain.

"If there isn't a record of Senkaimon activity during this event, we could also check for Kurotsuchi's Hell Butterfly," explained Captain Kuchiki with an unemotional face. "I fear that the stolen records could be used against us if an enemy, Kurotsuchi or not, was able to back up the files."

A moment passed as Yamamoto considered their viewpoints. "We'll follow through with all of this to determine the matter of Captain Kurotsuchi's disappearance, but that is not the only point of this meeting."

Toshiro frowned. As if the possible death of another two elite officers and a security breach weren't enough, more bad news proved that even stronger storm clouds were on the way. The Squad Ten Captain almost hoped the clouds outside would match.

* * *

Ichigo frowned in thought, remembering the events of the night before. He sat in school before class began, staring blankly at the board. The mystery spiritual pressure had disappeared after he left Hirako, and it was all that bastard's fault that a potential threat could have slipped through his fingertips. Karakura Town was too important to him to have hollows running amok.

There was still a missing poster on the wall for Uryu, set up by his friends in the sewing club. Everything pointed toward the Quincy's death, but Ichigo didn't want to believe it. The guy might have been a bastard, but he was a powerful ally and a friend when he needed it. They were comrades, and he could use all the comrades he could in the upcoming conflict.

Ichigo felt a flash of familiar energy behind him, craning his neck and then smiling lightly. "Good morning, Ichigo!" Orihime said in her chipper voice, but it was an odd sight. She had bandages covering her right arm, and another around her left leg; his mind immediately ran to last night.  _Did the mystery hollow hurt her?_

"Oh, Orihime, what happened to you?!" someone yelled, running over. Ichigo frowned at the sight of an overemotional Keigo Asano, but the question was at least valid.

Tatsuki strolled up to her best friend and wrapped an arm around her, causing the girl to wince. "Leave her alone; she's not hurt badly. Just a few scrapes from our sparring match last night."

Orihime nervously rubbed the back of her neck after noticing Ichigo's concerned glare from across the room and smiled. "Don't worry, I'm fine. Tatsuki just didn't go easy on me!"

Ichigo stared at the two of them, sizing them up as Chizuru made a dumb comment that surely was inappropriate about what their sparring match entailed. He stood up and dragged them to the corner of the room to talk, brushing everyone else aside as Keigo yelled in the usual way.

"Training?" he asked, curious. "Isn't Uzumaki handling that for you, Tatsuki?"

The dark-haired girl nodded. "Yes. But I decided to help Orihime as well. She and I want to improve!"

"We felt the hollows that showed up last night, but I doubt they were anything she or I could handle alone or even together. So we found a place and sparred," Orihime explained, gesturing to her wounds.

Ichigo remembered the enemies from last night; not quite hollow, and not quite shinigami. But before he could explain his encounter with the Visoreds, the annoying blonde voice suddenly popped into existence. "Good morning, Ichigo! Orihime!"

The redheaded girl looked at him for a moment. "Hello, Shinji!"

"Oh, you remembered my name! You're such a sweet girl!"

Tatsuki stepped in between them protectively; Ichigo wondered for a split-second if the girl could sense Hirako was more than he let on. "Back off with the flirtations, new kid."

Shinji rolled his eyes and looked pointedly at Ichigo. "Kid, huh? She's hilarious. And not even close to a tenth of my age." The two girls were speechless, wide-eyed at the comment, but Shinji turned and started to go and interact with the other classmates. Ichigo wasn't going to have that, grabbing him by the collar.

"Come on, Hirako. We need to talk!" Orihime and Tatsuki shared a glance as the two boys disappeared into the hallway. "Don't follow. Just be careful while you're training next time; I don't want any of my friends to get hurt."

* * *

Naruto had spent several hours researching Kira's notes with Tessai and Yoruichi, but none of them had made any headway; Urahara had been busy with some kind of conference call all afternoon. Creating a way into Hueco Mundo and back was complicated, and not even Tessai could devise a spell on his own.

"There are certain spells we could use to mimic an effect, but those are forbidden and too energy inefficient," the man declared. "They might work, but we would need to be familiar with the area we are targeting. None of us have been to Hueco Mundo. If we blast our way inside anyway, those kinds of spells drain all of the travelers and no one will be able to intercept Aizen or his soldiers."

Naruto hated this, because he knew what space-time Kido he was referring to, although he didn't know how to cast it himself. The teaching of that spell, and spells of its kind, were reserved for the Kido Corps, although still forbidden from even its captain to use the most dangerous of them. Only certain exceptions were granted, and Naruto supposed that rescuing Momo from the clutches of the enemy would not count as an exception.

"That's true," Yoruichi agreed, reading over a particular page with all of their failed arrays and incantations. "I'm starting to think that devising a spell back might be impossible. Someone would need to stay here to open the Garganta again for a return trip." She pointed at a particular array that had properties that should work, but won't in that instance. "Studying the Senkaimon's foundation was smart, but once someone is on the other side of it, the environment will no longer support that foundation for a portal. It would work on this side because there isn't a huge difference between the Soul Society and the World of the Living. The qualities of the two dimensions are much more similar."

Naruto stood and stretched, knowing she was right. "This is too much right now. Is there any chance Urahara can help us soon? He promised he wou-"

The door to the backroom opened and closed almost immediately. "I know I promised, and I will. But right now, we have more pressing matters. Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi and his lieutenant are dead."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "What do you mean? How do you know thi-" He frowned in realization; there must be some kind of communicator with the Soul Society for moments like these. "What did they say?"

Urahara produced several sheets of paper, handing them to Yoruichi. "This is all the data they have on what happened. I ran through all of it with Lieutenant Sasakibe and Squad Twelve Third Seat Akon, but they still think the two of them are missing or that they betrayed the Thirteen Court Guard Squads." He frowned, his expression truly troubled. "I was able to trace evidence in their data that no one else has found just yet, but that doesn't mean that they won't figure it out eventually."

"Why didn't you tell them what you learned?" asked Tessai.

The shopkeeper stared at the group, his expression gaunt. "Because a Quincy killed them, and used a special form of Ginto to destroy the evidence and hack data from the archives."

Naruto was not one hundred percent sure he followed them, but the others seemed to suddenly be terrified. But then he remembered. "Uryu Ishida."

Yoruichi sighed in exasperation. "Ichigo and the others mustn't know."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto, confused. "Shouldn't they be glad to know that Uryu is alive?"

"I'm sure they would be, Uzumaki. But that knowledge would be a liability to them," began Urahara. "When they discover that it was a Quincy's techniques that killed them, the Soul Society will not see this or any of Uryu's friends kindly."

Naruto realized the implications, as they were similar to his own. "When Central 46 learns that Uryu sought out his vengeance seemingly after the initial crisis was over, they'll be justified to target him and everyone he's ever associated with. Just like me for the Kyuubi."

Tessai nodded. "You're right. Aizen might have done you, Ichigo and the others a favor in some twisted way." Naruto wanted to puke.

Yoruichi's face contorted. "They would forgive him for attacking during the conflict because it was Aizen's hand that really led to the invasion, but this is different. Uryu wanted this; he murdered them. It doesn't matter if Kurotsuchi deserves it or not."

The room fell quiet and it was all they could do to calm down. After another minute, Naruto finally asked the question on everyone's mind. "So what do we do about it?"

"Keep it quiet," Urahara said simply. "But that might be a little bit more difficult. We should see a team dispatched to Karakura within the next few days. They are still working on viable strategies as preventative measures."

"Preventative measures for what?"

Urahara grinned at the blonde's question. "Well, Aizen's plan, of course. I did figure it out, after all. No one can pick Sosuke Aizen's brain quite like I can."

* * *

Chad hated missing school that day, but after checking in with Orihime just before class, he disappeared to train; she'd take notes, he was sure of it. Several days ago, he'd found a place by the river that was obscure enough that no one would come by and wonder what he was doing, and even if they did, they probably wouldn't see anything but him practicing stances.

He closed his left fist, focusing on something he could feel brewing underneath the skin. The power was more concentrated in his right fist, but he was sure there was something there. The next stage of his powers?

He had often wondered if he had stages, like Ichigo and the other shinigami. Their zanpakutou had two releases, the first not unlike activating his right arm; he remembered Komamura's giant Bankai, which he had survived at least one hit from before running out of reiryoku to continue. Did he have something similar? Did Orihime?

Their powers were unorthodox, but there had to be a source, right? Some hidden heritage or genetic predisposition. Maybe they just reflected the true personality of his soul, unlocked through exposure to Ichigo's reiatsu like Urahara originally said. But he didn't feel complete, like there was just something he was missing.

His fight against that Menos-level hollow the night before had gone in his favor, but not as much as far as it could have. Chad was sure he could improve his speed, his strength, his endurance. He had focused most of his training today, however, on his speed.

After spending several hours running and utilizing the green light to expand his movements, he was sure he had seriously improved. He didn't use his arm, hoping to improve his base form, but when he finally wanted to switch from speed to power training, the arm caused him to suddenly fall to the ground, dehydrated and exhausted.

He breathed heavily, realizing he had expended way too much energy without a proper meal in the last twenty four hours. He took several deep breaths and staggered over to the water fountain not far from where he had began his running drills. He felt completely overwhelmed, not even sure he would have the energy to lean over and meet the water. As he tried to take a drink, there was another green flash of light.

Instantly, the fountain burst, water pouring into his mouth as if it was his own accord. It happened so fast it was truly overwhelming, and Chad backed away in horror, wanting it to stop. The light vanished and the broken fountain continued to spew, but away from his mouth.

 _That was the same light that usually appears when I use my speed,_  Chad realized, thinking hard. He stared down at his hands and feet, thinking through everything he knew about his powers and how he used his high-speed movement technique.  _It usually happens when I want to go faster, and I just wanted a drink right now. The light appears when I want something?_

He imagined a huge meal with dango and rice and maybe even a traditional Mexican taco, and he could really use that right now. But there was no flash of light, and no meal appeared before his very eyes.

Chad concentrated on wanting more of the water, even if he didn't really need it. But again, nothing happened this time. "Just when I think I've made a breakthrough, it all falls apart. I wonder what Sakura or Yoruichi would think."

He realized it was approaching afternoon, and he probably did need to go home soon and eat before he could come back and keep going. But before he did, he decided to try it one more time, using it with his speed.

As he took off to a run, ignoring his straining muscles, he focused on getting faster. Fast enough to keep up with Shunpo or Uryu's Hirenkyaku. He pressed a calculated foot forward, the green light appearing and causing the ground to literally become like elastic, as though it were a tool to help him get faster. He jumped off of that incredibly elastic ground hard enough to disappear from sight, moving fifty yards in the blink of an eye.

Chad smiled with excitement, thinking over the ways he'd used it so far. Everything might have come through instinct when he needed it most, rather than training like Ichigo, but he was sure he could connect the dots here and use it to his advantage.

_The light appears when I need something to do something for me. Most of the time, his speed is enhanced by forcing the ground to help me. I forced the water in the water fountain to help me drink without using any physical energy. Somehow, my spiritual power reaches out and turns objects into useful tools?_

He stared at his arms, wondering what the connection was. Chad was excited by the possibility of being right, but he'd have to ask someone else for their opinion.

* * *

"Come on, Orihime, we need to go to Urahara. I'm almost certain Naruto is there, and he can probably help both of us get stronger!" Tatsuki was sure of it; any of their friends and allies could help them, but Naruto was the only one who could help her specifically. Her chakra manipulation was getting much better, at an almost odd rate, and she already had a few ninjutsu under her belt that could aid her karate- taijutsu. Surely there was something else he could teach her to add to her skillset before everything fell apart.

Orihime herself was different; Tatsuki could definitely tell. Something awful must have happened to her during their trip to the Soul Society to save Rukia, and while she understood most of the details, her best friend had yet to open up about them. Either way, her personality seemed more determined and yet also worried; it was an odd juxtaposition that she couldn't quite figure out.

Orihime had the will to fight, but she lacked the confidence to make her techniques as effective as they could be. Tatsuki had tried to knock some sense into her, to remind her that she had been helpful in the invasion based on everything Naruto and the others had told her. But she almost seemed... scared of what her own powers could do. Her emotions were tepid at best, like she was scared to tap into that side of her that could make her powers terrifying.

It was Yoruichi who had discovered what she had the ability to do, the potential to do. Her healing ability was potentially limitless in its ability to reject events. Apparently, the woman had witnessed Orihime kill an opponent by bisecting him, and then reject enough of the damage to save him from the clutches of death. It had not surprised Tatsuki that the girl was so scared to use Tsubaki, because her offensive power was so deadly with just the right mindset. She had been so petrified by the idea of killing someone that she was shell-shocked now.

Even then, Tatsuki had helped Orihime realize that there might be different ways to use her powers than just her three abilities, and her Rikka had seemed receptive to the idea in one of their earlier training sessions. She had embraced it, wondering aloud about what would happen if different combinations of her Rikka worked together.

"Tatsuki, this isn't the right way. I have a bad feeling."

The two girls turned the corner and immediately heard voices arguing, one of them incredibly familiar. Up ahead were the new kid Shinji and a blonde girl wearing a track suit, a sword she suspected was a zanpakutou on her back.

"What's taking you so long to accomplish one tiny mission, you dumbass!?" The girl yelled after smacking Shinji in the face with her sandal. Tatsuki had half a mind to jump in to stop the fight, but something told her that would be a bad idea.

"About that-"

"Have you done  _anything?_  Where is Ichigo Kurosaki?!"

"There are complication-"

"Complications?! You know I don't like complications! Bring him here right now! Get off your butt and find some way to talk him into it!"

Tatsuki had enough of this. If they were after Ichigo, then she'd intervene. "Talk him into what? Who the hell are you, really?" Orihime shot her a look for sounding so confrontational, but Tatsuki could tell she too was worried the second that they mentioned Ichigo's name.

The little girl frowned deeper and turned around, grabbing the boy's head. "Shinji, why was someone following you, you dipshit?!"

Orihime stepped forward, somehow gathering her nerve. "I knew. Even if I asked him directly, Ichigo wouldn't tell me what's going on. He'd tell me it was nothing to be concerned about, but that's not true!" Tatsuki peered at her, realizing the girl had a certain kind of tenacity behind her voice that was refreshing. "Who are you, and what do you want with Ichigo?"

The tension gathered in the air, and the shinobi-in-training could already feel a fight coming. The two girls had probably instigated the fight by trying to confront them for the truth, but the two blondes didn't appreciate that.

The little girl smirked. "Heh. You two have got some nerve. You think you could just ask and we'd tell you everything you want to know." The tension grew even farther, and already, Tatsuki felt the itch to strike before the other could. "I'm Hiyori Sarugaki. Don't make me repeat it." She stopped at their confusion, before pointing to her chest. "All right, you two. I told you my name, why don't you tell me yours?"

Tatsuki was tempted to not say anything at all, but she felt compelled after Orihime offered hers. "My name is Tatsuki Arisawa, and I'll make sure you don't forget it."

Hiyori smirked, a toothy grin spreading over her face. "A princess and a dragon. Those are impressive names. Well, our names only mean 'monkey' and 'common.' I have to say, we're very jealous, really."

Shinji pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose in annoyance, before picking it right in front of them. "I don't know what you're talking about. The only one who is 'common' around here is you. I've got more going on up there than you do-"

Almost instantly, in a speed that the untrained eye couldn't follow, Hiyori's sandal struck the face of Shinji again, causing him to cry out and nurse a bloody nose.

"I mean, just look at you. You've got really smooth hair and a beautiful bod."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Has  _everyone_ hit on her today?"

The tracksuit-wearing girl scoffed. "Not like that at all, although I guess you are Lisa's type, Princess. The point is that I could, and probably should, totally despise you."

"Is that a threat?" Tatsuki asked, this time totally prepared to enter a stance to fight them off. She was almost sure she could beat them in hand-to-hand; neither of them had much muscle mass.

Hiyori's expression changed and her hand twitched to her sword, and that was all the motivation Tatsuki needed. The dark-haired girl instantly shot forward, hands pulsating with invisible chakra, prepared to deliver a haymaker that could level the wall behind the two of them.

At almost the same time, Shinji suddenly grabbed Hiyori from behind and halted her from launching any kind of counter-attack. Orihime realized he wasn't going to allow the girl to start anything, so she wasn't either, stopping Tatsuki from reaching the small blonde with her Santen Kesshun.

Tatsuki whirled around as Shinji held his hand over Hiyori's mouth, preventing her from complaining about that. "What'd you do that for? She provoked a fight!"

"And I ended it before it could start," Hirako explained, struggling to hold the girl as Orihime's shield vanished. "We don't want to make enemies with Ichigo's friends prematurely. I won't give you any answers either, but just let Ichigo know that all of his friends' lives are in danger from what's inside himself unless he comes to us. If he waits too late, the two of you may be his first victims."

And with that, Shinji disappeared down the street, moving almost as fast as humanly possible.

"What the hell was that about?" Tatsuki asked, still feeling a little bit trigger happy. It was probably not right to try to attack first to prevent them from attacking first, but she had to admit that part of her was a little bit angry she didn't get a chance to prove herself.

"I don't know, but it didn't sound good. We need to find him and tell the others."

* * *

Ryuuken slammed the book he was reading shut, losing his hidden calm. He sat forward in his reclining office chair, already feeling the familiar spiritual pressure coming toward him. He tried to bite back his distrust of the general make-up of the reiatsu signature, knowing that the person who it belonged to held him no real malice.

If anything,  _he_  was the one who held the malice for the other, although it had tempered over the years. Ever since that day a little more than nine years ago, the two of them had sort of come to a shared agreement, despite the bad blood between them.

When Isshin finally appeared inside his office, he was dressed in full shinigami gear, Engetsu on his back. "Ishida."

"Shiba."

The bearded man rolled his eyes. "It's Kurosaki now, and you know it. I thought we'd gotten over that."

"And I thought you'd gotten over your powers, but apparently, that's not the case." Ryuuken was very aware of what that meant, but it was troubling either way. His son had manifested the first sign of the hollow powers that had transferred to him through birth, and Isshin's limitations had vanished because of it.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. I'm not here to talk about all of that," Isshin stated. "Urahara has just heard from the Soul Society. Ryuuken, your son is alive. You already know what happened to him before they returned home, but a few nights ago, someone killed Captain Kurotsuchi and his lieutenant. Urahara has discovered it was Uryu."

The white-haired man didn't let his face visibly react, but his mind was a blur. The boy had used Quincy Letz Stil to defeat Kurotsuchi, confirmed by the captain's own report after he survived the fight. By all rights, the boy's powers should have disappeared because he was foolish enough to use Souken's imperfect Sanrei Glove before his powers were mature enough to handle it. How could he, in turn, have somehow evaded detection for several days, long enough for the shinigami to think he had died, only to reappear and assassinate a Captain with restored Quincy powers?

"Did Orihime Inoue reverse the effects of Quincy Letz Stil?" It was the only other way he could think of that could return Uryu's powers, other than interaction with another Quincy himself. Which should be truly impossible because there were no other Quincy.

Isshin raised an eyebrow. "Are her powers advanced enough to do that? Even if they are, they didn't interact after his fight with Kurotsuchi. He supposedly went missing and everyone thought that maybe Kurotsuchi had killed him somehow. Joke's on him, I guess."

Either way, Ryuuken truly couldn't understand it. "Someone's lying or something else is going on. Something bigger than all of this."

"Aizen?"

"No."

* * *

Tatsuki's spear made of earth slammed against Orihime's shield each time the shinobi-in-training swung. The two of them circled each other, and Orihime was able to materialize the shield in front of her nearly by instinct at this point, able to block every strike, every kunai that the dark-haired girl threw at her.

Naruto was sitting on the ground, partially meditating, watching their fighting while shouting tips every few minutes. Orihime's offensive attack was strong but not as useful as it could be, definitely. She had proven its capabilities, but she didn't have the heart to attack her friend head on.

At the same time, her friend was trying to improve her own abilities, such as her skill with deception and speed of hand-signs. One of Tatsuki's worse attributes when fighting someone with Shunpo or advanced speed was her ability to match it. When she draws on at least two-tails of the Nanabi, in flight, she can flutter around fast enough to mimic some of the basic-level Houhou techniques. But on the ground, without calling on its power to benefit her, she was dangerously powerless to stop those techniques from doing her in. He thought of someone in Squad Two or the Stealth Force being able to stop her without much trouble in her base state.

"Come on, you've got to be quick, Tatsuki. Be faster here, and you'll be even faster if you use your trump card."

Naruto had the pretense of training Tatsuki in this way, but in reality, she wasn't going to get much faster training against someone at Orihime's skill level. If she was going to get faster, she'd train against Naruto, but the blonde was really testing Orihime here and seeing how the girl could stack up.

"I see what you're doing," Yoruichi said, watching. "The girl could be incredibly strong. They both could. Tatsuki's growing much faster than expected, not unlike Ichigo."

Naruto nodded. "Probably because her spiritual side was jump-started by Ichigo himself. Chad and Orihime were both the same, weren't they?" He took a second, realizing it. "Where is Chad, anyway?"

"Training by the river on his own," the woman declared as they watched Orihime use Tsubaki to slash her opponent's spear in half. "He's sort of a loner. Probably an influence of whatever hollow-like abilities he has."

Naruto looked at her. "Hollow abilities? Like Ichigo?" He paused, remembering Shinji's warning to Ichigo from Orihime, about how he would kill everyone he cares about if he doesn't go to them.

She shook her head. "Nothing that serious. Sometimes his reiryoku just resembles that of a hollow, like how he behaves in a fight. That energy attack of his is extremely similar to a Cero. I actually wouldn't be surprised if he actually used a Cero one of these days."

Naruto peered at Orihime. "And what about her? Do you have any idea what her powers are? They are sort of like a shinigami, but not really."

Yoruichi shrugged, leaning against the boulder. "I honestly don't know if Chad or Orihime have definable powers, other than what they say their powers are. They don't mesh fully with anything I've ever seen before, and not even Urahara knows what they could be. For all we know, it's just Chad and Orihime."

Naruto nodded. "That makes training them a little bit harder, because we can't follow all the steps you and I learned."

"Not necessarily," the woman muttered, standing up straight and walking over to them. "All right, stop fighting. I'm going to be your instructor. Your job is to airwalk. This is a technique that all spiritual beings can do, and while you think you can't do it, I want you to work hard until you can."

Naruto honestly wasn't sure if it was possible to do it; the only human he had ever known who could fly of his own accord was the Tsuchikage Ohnoki, and he had only really heard stories of that. Tatsuki could fly with the Nanabi's wings and Orihime could ride on her shield like a hovercraft. Was it really going to be helpful to try to teach them something that they may not be able to do?

He finally shrugged and wished them well, as Yoruichi worked through the exercises necessary to learn it. It was a matter of condensing reishi with reiatsu into a sort of invisible platform holding you in the air just under your feet, not unlike using chakra to walk on water or climb up vertical surfaces. "Tatsuki, make sure you use yin chakra instead of regular chakra. It probably won't work otherwise." She thanked him.

He eventually meditated, before pulling himself into his inner world with Jinzen, all while in his gigai.

* * *

_He found himself in his usual mindscape, the middle of a forest clearing with leaves so thick that no sky was visible, and the light seemed to just come from nowhere. Kusaritane was nowhere in sight, and it didn't surprise him, considering he wasn't in shinigami form._

_However, off to the side was someone that he was trying to talk to. Wrapped in wood and plants in its own kind of prison, the Kyuubi lay to the side, breathing heavily and trying to destroy the place with its chakra but unable._

_It growled loudly, failing to eradicate him with its glare._ _**"Go away, human."** _

_"Oh, come on. Why do you have to be like that?"_

_**"Because clearly I hate you, and I want you to get so close to death that you let me go."** _

_Naruto just laughed. "I hope you know that I'm at that point where your threats just sound like empty promises."_

_**"They might be empty now because of this wretched cage, but they are still promises, human."** _

_"Yeah, okay. Whatever you say, Kyuubi." He paused, wondering how to bring this up. Apparently, it didn't matter._

_**"No, I can't give you any advice on how to deal with Ichigo Kurosaki or the Visored. I'm clearly superior to this idea of an inner hollow, and I'm thoroughly offended that you would assume they are at all similar."** _

_Naruto frowned. "I did not mean to offend, but surely you can see some similarities. It's a forbidden power that should not belong to the person, bound to their mindscape with a seal, and it gives access to extraordinary abilities far beyond that of a normal human or shinigami if you can control it. That is literally the same thing."_

_The Kyuubi growled again._ _**"No. They are not the same at all. Hollows are creatures of instinct and despair; there is nothing inherently wrong with a Bijuu, but hollows are by their very nature despicable creatures. If I chose to, I could be morally better than even the most moral person you imagine. The idea here is that there's a choice; hollows are limited in their options, if they have any at all."** _

_The shinigami peered at the fox behind its cage. "When did you become an expert on hollows?"_

_**"Just what I've understood from observing the world around you,"** _ _the fox explained._ _**"I'm a very perceptive creature, you know. And I can see your true intentions very clearly, human."** _

_Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Really? What do you think those are?"_

_The fox bared its teeth in a move that somehow combined anger into a smile; it was probably the happiest he had ever seen the Kyuubi._ _**"Isn't that something** _ **you** _**should know?"** _

* * *

Kon left the room very quickly after Ichigo chose to ignore him completely. The Substitute Shinigami wanted a moment to himself, to try to alleviate his worries. There was no way he was going to succumb to this and to Shinji. He would fight back, he would save his friends. He would not let his inner hollow inside stop him from protecting everyone he knew.

_But I can hear it now. After I kicked him out while fighting Byakuya, the mask that kept coming back over and over disappeared. Then, after that, I kept hearing that guy inside calling out to me._

He flinched as he remembered the incredibly pale, inverse of himself staring at him in his dreams, haunting him with that smile and reminding him that he would never be normal again.

_The sound is getting louder and louder. I didn't need Hirako to tell me. I know, too, that if this keeps up... he'll devour me eventually._

He clutched the sheet tight underneath him, hanging on for dear life like it was the only thing that would stop him from his worries.  _What should I do?!_

A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Ichigo, can I come in?" After a brief moment, his dark-haired younger sister walked into the room, knuckles tight against the door knob.

"Karin."

Her face looked determined, studying her brother. "I want you to tell me, Ichigo. What are you thinking about?"

He sat up, looking at the girl in front of him as though disinterested. "Why are you asking me that? There's nothing for you to worry about."

She steeled herself visibly. "I al-already know... I already know that you are a shinigami!"

Ichigo gaped at her in terror. "What the hell? What are you talking about, Karin? Stop acting stupid!"

She looked down at him with determination. "I saw you. A long time ago. At first, I didn't know what it was, but that old guy Kanonji..."

Instantly the two of them froze and Ichigo was unable to form words as the incredibly powerful and dense reiatsu filled the air. Ichigo grit his teeth and bared it, but his sister was not so lucky.  _She really can feel spirits, can't she?_ He put it out of his mind and immediately stood.

"Where are you going, Ichigo?" Karin asked, grabbing onto his shirt as she finally grabbed her nerve. He pried her hands away and grabbed the badge hanging on his wall, instantly separating his spirit form from his body.

"Sorry."  _Be safe, Karin. Keep Dad and Yuzu out of the way._

* * *

The SRDI was somber, and no one wanted to talk about it. Akon had tried to keep things on task, and he had to stop a few people from searching for the remnants of Kurotsuchi's data network; they didn't exist and would just distract from any useful work.

Akon himself was shakily clutching the tea that Rin had brought him earlier, hoping to make their new director feel better. It obviously didn't help matters; Mayuri Kurotsuchi had been a role model of his. Questionable behavior aside, the man was still a brilliant mind and did a lot of good for the Soul Society overall.

There were several leading theories behind their disappearance, but none of them felt true or plausible to them. Akon could feel it in his soul, he just needed to understand the data that would prove it; the captain and the lieutenant were dead. Killed by someone so quickly that the man did not have time to draw his sword to defend himself. Nemu had not even been fully recovered from the Ryoka Invasion, after her father had forced her to explode to try to stop the Ryoka he had in his lab. Akon wanted to puke up whatever meager contents were in his stomach that the man would sacrifice his own "daughter" to stop them.

He was still proud of his captain, however; all the work he had done in his life would benefit the Soul Society for years to come. Akon often wondered if one of Kurotsuchi's many creations would lead to him being promoted to the Royal Guard, like what happened to Captain Kirifune a century ago. But then again, did the Soul King really want to be protected by someone as immoral as Mayuri Kurotsuchi?

Something suddenly began to sound, and he heard shouting coming from the next room. His cup of tea dropped to the ground and shattered as he ran into the room, just in time to hear Hiyosu shout, "They're here!"

* * *

The shockwave of the explosion hit hard, expelled more quickly by the two powerful sources of reiatsu. Tatsuki immediately felt like she was going to combust from how close she was to that explosion. These two signatures were more powerful than anything she had ever felt before, more powerful than a Menos Grande.

She took a deep breath and rushed forward, attempting once more to airwalk to get there faster. Despite Naruto's advice about yin chakra, she couldn't keep that type of chakra on her feet and concentrated long enough to hold footing in the air. But Orihime had learned it practically instantaneously compared to her. Either way, she ran along the ground instead of the air, knowing she would get the hang of it eventually.

Something odd began to happen as lights appeared in the sky, blue-green orbs shooting from the ground and coalescing into a single point in the sky before falling back to the earth. She hurried faster, hearing the screams of the souls contained within each of those lights. "What the hell is going on?"

The second she found the clearing, she hid as best as she could behind a tree, watching the two who had fallen out of the sky. The almost seven foot tall brute of a man continued to consume the souls through his mouth as easily as breathing in air, until the smaller one about her height finally stopped them.

Both of them were wearing stark white uniforms, with pieces of a hollow's mask on their face in distinct ways. The large bald man had a hollow hole in the center of his exposed chest and a zanpakutou with a crimson handle and matching scabbard. The smaller of the two's hollow hole was through his throat, his own zanpakutou with a green color scheme instead of red.

"I know, I know. But I still don't like it," the large one said. "So what now? How many are we going to kill?"

"Just one. You can leave the others alone for now."

Tatsuki hated the way that the slender man's eyes, like he was unemotionally calculating everything around him. The odd markings on his face made it look like he was always crying.

"We have to find a single bug in a whole nest of them?!"

The smaller hollow frowned. "I heard that presently in the human world, there are at most four people with enough reiatsu to put up a fight against us. The rest are utter trash. It shouldn't be hard to spot him." Eventually his face turned until he locked eyes with Tatsuki in her hiding place.

Terror filled her chest as she moved on autopilot to stand up and join them in the clearing. It was the most ridiculously stupid decision she had ever made, and yet, here she was. A kunai found its way into her palm, but every part of her brain was screaming at her to stop antagonizing them.

"Amazing. Does this flea intend to fight us?" the large one bellowed, before laughing hard. "I don't need my Pesquisa to feel her powerlessness." As though to prove Tatsuki's worst nightmares, the man walked forward to stand tall in front of her, daring her to attack.

"I'll fight whomever I please," the woman said, only now realizing that the dead lying in the field around her were her karate club. She was lucky she had missed that meeting to train her shinobi arts, but everything suddenly clicked in her mind. Her blood boiled and the words of the Nanabi cooled in her mind, the ring practically brimming with power. "And I please to fight you!"

She slashed at him but her kunai immediately shattered into pieces the second she tried to cut into his chest. She didn't let it phase her, rolling out of the way of his stomping kick and preparing her next move.

"That knife was pathetic. Is this all the humans have to offer us?"

 **"Earth-Style: Earth Spears Jutsu!"**  Ten spears of earth suddenly formed from the ground around her, melting into extremely sharp points. Tatsuki tried to spread her yin chakra to them for a brief moment before launching them, hoping they would be enough to at least phase him.

The large man didn't flinch as the rocks burst into pieces against his tough exterior, not proving stronger than the kunai from before. That was her most offensive ninjutsu, but that wouldn't do. She'd have to move to her real strength, taijutsu to make a difference.

The man swung a fist at her, but she was able to avoid it with a cartwheel to the side, and she used the momentum of the bounce landing to jump forward. The second she made impact with a powerful fist, the large man actually buckled backwards, almost stunned that she was strong enough to make him lose his footing.

Tatsuki whirled around with a kick to the side of his face, spinning and kicking again. Both strikes were strong enough that the huge fighter was knocked a foot from side to side, but Tatsuki wasn't making a dent.  _His skin is practically like kicking metal!_

"Stop toying with the human trash, Yammy. Destroy her."

When this Yammy grinned excitedly as though given the go-ahead, the reiatsu-enhanced fist suddenly raced at her, and if that hit, she was sure to die.

The Nanabi's chakra raced through her system, immediately appearing as twin wings of orange and yellow on her back. She fluttered out of the way, drew another blade, and looped around before diving at him like a meteor. "Take this! **Clone Kunai Divebomb!"**

She made a hand-sign and several copies of her popped into existence, all aiming kunai in front of her. The chakra was powerful enough to enhance her speed to powerful levels, falling out of the sky. Yammy didn't move and that would prove to show his arrogance, Tatsuki was sure.

The second the first attack hit, the large man staggered back, stunned as the first kunai embedded into his skin by a few inches. The force and speed of the Nanabi Jinchuuriki's diving attack was enough to bypass his defenses. He flared his reiatsu to pop the clone attached to him and held out a fist.  **"Bala!"**

Red energy spheres streaked through the sky like miniature bullets, peppering the remaining shadow-clones and blasting them apart like they were made of paper. However, when all of the Tatsuki's speeding toward him proved to be clones, he raised an eyebrow.

Rising out of the earth right in front of him so fast, four wings instead of two, Tatsuki slammed a fist so hard against Yammy's face that he actually flew several yards and landed in a heap. All of her knuckles were shattered, and she was not entirely sure if she actually had any bones left in her wrist.

The girl grinned, blood against her teeth, her skin burning from using too much of the creature's chakra. She fell to the ground barely conscious as the Nanabi's chakra receded, unable to continue.

"I'll crush you under my boot like the annoying beetle you are!" He rushed up to her in a burst of speed that left an annoying echo that threatened to pop her eardrums. But as though through divine intervention, a bright green flashed in front of her dazed eyes, revealing Chad with his activated arm, stopping the foot effortlessly.

Orihime jumped out of the sky beside her, standing in front and holding her hand protectively. "Are you all right?"

Tatsuki nodded and hoped Orihime wouldn't waste her time trying to heal her hand just yet. The Nanabi would handle it eventually anyway, but there was too much else going on.

"More bugs?" asked the large enemy named Yammy, pulling back his foot. "Yo, Ulquiorra, are any of these the one we're looking for?"

"No. They are both trash, as worthless as the Nanabi Jinchuuriki. Eliminate them." Tatsuki's breath hitched in her throat at that; they knew about the source of her powers?

Yammy pulled back and released a powerful strike that had the power to destroy any human soul in the vicinity without even physically touching them. Tatsuki felt the strain herself, and she wished someone would come save them. There was no way that Chad or Orihime would really be able to stop them.

But the tall human released his own right fist, the two colliding in the middle with an explosion that kicked up a huge cloud of smoke and debris. Orihime threw up her shield in front of the two of them to brace for the impact of that attack. When the smoke cleared, Chad was gone and Yammy was holding a bruised fist.

Tatsuki's eyes widened as Chad reappeared behind Yammy, surprising even Ulquiorra with his speed. Orihime solidified her shield again in time as Yammy was hit with a point-blank El Directo from the back, the blue energy colliding against the monster's defenses and sending him rocketing into Orihime's own shield, which surprisingly held.

The girl took that as the moment to strike, her expression determined.  **"Tsubaki! Koten Zanshun, I reject!"**

The technique blasted to life, swinging around the shield and aiming directly at Yammy from the right. The hollow screamed as part of his shoulder was hit by the Rikka's attack, cutting into the same place where Tatsuki's kunai had hit before. That breach his defenses expanded, and Chad knew exactly where to plan his next hit.

Yammy stood up with a start, his anger and reiatsu levels rising. The other enemy, Ulquiorra, stood impassively at the side, watching the entire display with annoyance and frustration. "Are you really allowing these weaklings to do damage to you?"

"Of course not!" Chad aimed another point blank El Directo, light blue power swirling around his fist, but Yammy countered with a powerful backhand that sent Chad flying back and straight into a tree. "See? They are pointless to try to oppose me!"

Tatsuki cursed her powerlessness in this moment, unable to mold chakra for any effective means. Chad stirred just as Yammy prepared to launch a fist directly at Orihime. The girl took a stance, holding out both hands as her shield raised to stop the fist. The reiatsu surged outward, kicking up dust as Yammy's fist hit the orange wall.

"An interesting technique, but pointless all the same. **Bala!"**  The red energy bullets suddenly expanded from the very fist that was pushing against Orihime's shield causing it to crack apart and then shatter.

But Chad intercepted it with his right arm's true form, this one looking like a shield defending the follow-up fist from hitting her defenseless form. "Chad!" Orihime cried out.

"I'll be fine. Get Tatsuki out of here! Now!"

Yammy laughed. "You three may have wounded me, but you can't possibly defeat me!" When Chad's arm was suddenly grabbed, Yammy pulled it with both hands from different angles and ripped it in half. He then threw Chad across the field, lying next to Orihime and Tatsuki.

"Chad!" Orihime screamed again, immediately calling on her Shoten Kisshun and draping it over the two of them. Tatsuki felt the golden shield's soothing effects for a brief moment, but it wouldn't happen fast enough to give her the ability to fight again. Chad was unconscious next to her, his arm literally torn to shreds, and Tatsuki had to hope that Orihime's powers would be enough to at least staunch the blood flow.

Yammy basically knew he stood unopposed, so he was shocked when Orihime's offensive technique was suddenly flying at him. Yammy reached out quickly to grab the orange-yellow ball of light to stop it, but Orihime wasn't going to let that happen. Tsubaki suddenly shifted to the right, zigzagging away and then aiming for Yammy's right leg. The second the technique worked, Orihime's confidence grew, and when Tsubaki hit the enemy's thigh, he sliced right through a large portion of it.

"You bitch!" the man screamed, holding the small wound on his leg with one hand, the other trying to swat at Tsubaki. "You fucking bitch! You humans should be worthless!"

Orihime locked eyes with him, returning Tsubaki to her side. "Don't underestimate us. If you hurt my friends, you will pay the price. I won't stop until you are dead!"

Tatsuki smiled at hearing that, realizing that her hand was mending. She leaned her head up slightly to see the smaller enemy watching the dome with an interested expression on his face. No wonder he was interested; Chad's arm was re-attaching piece by piece as though the damage had never been done.

"How are you able to heal those two? In fact, how are they even alive?"

"You're a strange human, aren't you?" Ulquiorra said, watching the girl's technique reverse the damage that Tatsuki and Chad had received in battle.

"Does it matter how or why? Does it matter that I'm a strange human?" she asked, before preparing another strike. "Does any of that matter?" Tsubaki went into his flight mode, circling around Orihime so fast it appeared that he was like the rings of Saturn. Tatsuki was proud of her friend for how impressive it looked, and for how strategic it was; Yammy wouldn't be able to predict where Tsubaki was launched from until after it.

Tatsuki felt the boy's spiritual pressure just as he arrived, standing next to Orihime. The Substitute Shinigami was holding his cleaver of a sword already, preparing to fight. "Orihime, stay back."

"No.  _I_  am going to protect them this time, Ichigo."

Yammy scoffed. "I don't care who is going to do what!" He opened his mouth, a great sphere of red energy gathering before it. The sheer density of it was astounding, but Orihime walked forward as though none of it mattered.  **"Cero!"**

The huge red blast of energy streaked across the battlefield, and Ichigo raised his blade to intercept it. But he didn't have to. In the sheer instant of attack, Tatsuki watched Orihime's shield appear and join with Tsubaki into a pyramidal shape, covering all of them including Ichigo. In the next moment, all of that energy was redirected, the Cero firing back at the two enemies.

The great explosion was catastrophic in scope, the heat and force wiping out part of the forest. Tatsuki could feel it affecting her too, shaking her joints and popping her right eardrum.

Orihime collapsed instantly, caught by Ichigo and dropped to the ground. With Orihime unconscious, her Rikka were condensed into their hairpin form against the side of her head, and the light faded around Tatsuki and Chad. The huge smoke cloud dissipated to reveal how the attack had finished, shocking everyone.

Ulquiorra held a finger in front of him, his clothes and body completely unharmed. A huge crevice was cut into the ground all around him, protecting Yammy from his own attack's angry ferocity.

"Amazing. Truly amazing," the smaller of the two enemies said. "The girl has remarkable skills, more than I would have ever imagined." He looked back at the stunned larger man. "Had that hit you, I'm not sure that you would have been able to continue without using it. The attack was completely redirected, but I have to admit, I'm terrified to imagine what the girl could do if she knew how to focus it."

"Bullshit," Yammy declared, but Tatsuki could hear the uncertainty in his voice.

Ichigo held his sword in front of him. "I'm glad at least one of you can see the value in my friends."

The other enemy shook his head. "You misunderstand my words, Ichigo Kurosaki. They may have some useful skills that have impressed on a small scale, but they are still not valuable. They are nothing but trash."

Ichigo angrily raised his sword directly in front of him, holding his right arm with his left. "I'll make you regret your words!  **Bankai!"**

The massive pillar of blue spiritual energy released all at the same moment was stifling, making it difficult for Tatsuki to breathe. It was dense and powerful, and she was amazed at the notion that this was what a Captain-Class fighter felt like. She remembered how Naruto had fought, but she had never witnessed his Bankai in action herself.

When the smoke settled, Ichigo's dark coat had changed shape, his zanpakutou slimming into a black katana that ended with a small chain. His face was intesne, the power flowing around him incredibly strong.  **"Tensa Zangetsu!"**

The larger man was glad to get the chance to try against a Bankai. The wounds on his shoulder and thigh were now ignored, but if Ichigo was as battle-savvy as Tatsuki heard, the boy will have taken note of those weaker spots. "You've got a Bankai, huh? Hey, Ulqiorra, is this the guy?"

"Yes. Considering how clumsily you've dealt with the situation, I'm surprised we were able to flush him out at all." After another moment, he placed his hand back in his pocket. "The orange hair... the black Banaki. There's no doubt about it that this is our target, Yammy. He is the one."

Ichigo didn't seem fazed by their conversation, still pissed about how he had handled all of his friends.

"Ichigo, don't underestimate him," Tatsuki cried out, surprising Ichigo that she was even awake. "We were all able to hurt him, but he's not weakened by any stretch of the imagination. He might use that sword of his too, and if he's anything like you shinigami, we don't know what kind of powers it contains."

The orange-haired shinigami nodded. "Okay. Thank you, Tatsuki. I'll keep you safe." Tatsuki truly felt relieved at hearing that.

Yammy frowned. "Stop talking!" Another forward punch, using all of his body strength, headed for Ichigo. The boy, in turn, raised his zanpakutou up lazily and let out a burst of reiatsu, strong enough to stop the punch like it had all the force of a feather.

"I won't let you hurt my friends anymore. I won't let their efforts go in vain!" The boy jumped into the air over Yammy and slashed his sword at the same moment, a burst of speed to conceal that fact. He landed behind the giant man, just as the severed remains of Yammy's arm fell to the ground. He'd aimed right for the spot where Tatsuki and Orihime had wounded him, finishing the damage by cutting it right off.

Yammy screamed in agony, holding onto the top of his shoulder for dear life as blood splattered everywhere. As Ichigo moved to attack again, Yammy aimed another fist and missed, hitting the ground.

"Damn! You little runt!" the man yelled, angry. "All of you are the same! Have I really gotten this weak?"

Ichigo just shook his head, preparing to defend or attack again as needed. "No. My friends are just stronger than you realize, when all of our lives are on the line. Orihime would have never posed a threat to you if you had not hurt Chad, and she wanted to pay you back." He pointed to the arm on the ground. "There's your reward."

The giant man screamed in anger and drew his zanpakutou, which immediately put Ichigo on guard. His left arm was obviously not his sword arm though; as formally untrained as Tatsuki was, she could see that the man's movements were all wrong. She wondered if Ichigo had noticed it.

"You sure you can wield that thing?" asked the boy in question.

"Shut up, you upstart!" The man swung it in a downward arc that split the earth beneath him, but Ichigo was able to easily flicker out of the way with Shunpo. The second he landed behind the enemy, he slashed diagonally but the sword didn't leave a mark.

"Interesting," Ulquiorra said. "Your soul and your abilities are in constant flux. A moment ago, you slashed off his arm, and the next, you can't pierce his Hierro. Why do you think that is?"

The moment that Ulquiorra finished, Ichigo clutched his face and leaned over, suddenly distracted. Tatsuki didn't dare move, for fear of retribution, but she knew that he needed a warning. "Ichigo! Don't hesitate!"

The boy didn't listen and Yammy didn't care; after a split second, Yammy suddenly whipped around and roundhouse kicked the Substitute Shinigami to the ground. He brandished his sword, preparing to deliver the finishing blow. "I don't care what's going on with you; it doesn't matter now. Die!" The man swung his sword in a downward arc.

"Not so fast!" The second the chained dagger wrapped around the zanpakutou, locked in place, Tatsuki sighed in relief; it was Naruto. The man in question yanked it hard, stopping the strike, but Yammy instead kicked out in frustration and sent Ichigo flying so hard he vomited in mid-air.

"Who the fuck are you?" asked the giant. "Another bug?"

The blonde rolled his eyes. "One of those bugs just lopped your arm off, so if you think it makes you more badass to call us mere insects, then I'm the biggest one of all."

The other newcomer, Yoruichi, rolled her eyes at the line, before leaning down to make sure Ichigo and the others were okay. Tatsuki nodded briefly at her question before turning her attention back to the fight.

The giant just laughed and then yanked the sword with his monstrous strength. Naruto was pulled forward, but Tatsuki could tell by the smile on his face that that was what he wanted. A red flaming orb of energy flickered into existence over his palm, and the searing heat fired and exploded into the monster's face at such close range **. "Shakkaho!"**

"Damn it!" the monster yelled with a smoking face, but Naruto wasn't done, landing on his shoulders and then jumping off, enough force to put the man on his knees.

He retracted the dagger before launching it again, this time with orange energy spiraling all around it.  **"Rasentane!"**

The attack exploded into Yammy's back, carving through his tough exterior until there was a huge scar shaped like a spiral. Naruto flickered away as Yammy landed on the ground face-first.

Naruto stared at the other enemy expectantly, his chain retracting. "Now that your friend is down, are you going to join in?"

"I'm not down!" Yammy shouted, standing up and preparing a Cero, this one even more powerful than the last based on what Tatsuki could feel. But Yoruichi suddenly disappeared, delivering a powerful axe-kick to the monster's skull that surely would leave permanent damage. The man was face-first unconscious, the blood loss and damage all catching up to him finally.

"I stand corrected; now he is down."

Ulquiorra's frown did not alleviate or deepen, he just sighed and looked at the two of them. After a moment, he inexplicably grabbed Yammy with one hand. "Fine. We're leaving." Naruto watched in shock as a Garganta opened effortlessly, before he hurled the unconscious form of his comrade into the opening. "Kyuubi Jinchuuriki, we will meet again. Lord Aizen wanted me to let you know that Momo is in good hands."

He flashed forward just as the opening closed, and she could feel the pure killing intent in the air as the boy landed. Anger flooded off of her teacher in waves, and it took everything she could not to recoil at the sight of him. The unadulterated rage had marred his features, blue eyes turning to red and his teeth thickening into fangs.


	33. Guardian's Salvation

Naruto paced back and forth, his hands shaking with anxiety and his mind enraged. His shoulders were tied in knots, and he absolutely hated this. If he didn't have the opportunity to crush them, to crush them all, then he would force that opportunity. He was tired of sitting around, waiting for action; he needed to go to Hueco Mundo immediately.

"If you don't stop pacing, you're going to leave a permanent line on the floor," a familiar voice said, causing Naruto to immediately whirl around, surprised to see someone he hadn't seen in far too long.

"Toshiro!" He shouted, relieved to see him. Naruto went in for a quick hug, and the silver-haired captain frowned as he reciprocated.

"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you."

Naruto just rolled his eyes. "Whatever."

He turned back around, staring out the window at the sky above, silently hoping that a hollow would immediately spike into existence just so that he would have something to kill.

"What's bothering you?" asked the captain, before lowering his voice a bit. "Don't worry, you can say it now. Matsumoto's not here; she's at the school."

That actually did sound better; Rangiku was a prime gossip when she had a little bit of alcohol in her system, which was nearly one hundred percent of the time. "I just hate Aizen so much, and I hate the fact that I am not as good at Kido theory. I can't figure out this spell, and I'm stuck here until I do."

Toshiro nodded. "If it makes you feel any better, Urahara will eventually figure it out. He's got a reputation for that, even if I can't stand the guy."

"Can't stand who?" The man in question suddenly appeared, forcing both of them to roll their eyes. "So the advance team is finally here, although I kind of figured there would be more of you."

"The rest of them wanted to go bother Kurosaki," the captain declared. "Kuchiki and Abarai practically dragged the others along, and Matsumoto wouldn't say no."

Naruto looked at the two of them. "Who else is actually here? Is that all of them?"

"Them, as well as Ikkaku Madarame and Yumichika Ayesagawa."

Naruto nodded, although he admittedly did not know those two very well, outside of the occasional mention. "Not a bad group."

Urahara seemed to agree. "So what's the news? Any more information on the two Kurotsuchis?"

The blonde tried not to display his face, but he was inwardly peering at the man for mentioning them, while still keeping what he knew of their deaths a secret  _from_  them. _The man has his secrets._

"No," the captain explained. "Akon has taken over temporarily until we find a replacement. Your name actually came forward from Unohana, Urahara, but Yamamoto shot that down immediately."

The man grinned as he looked up fondly, before twisting his face in confusion. "I would say I'm grateful for the recommendation, but I'm inwardly terrified that she thought of me at all. Central 46 would hang me if they were still in power." Naruto and Toshiro both shared a sympathetic glance and shuddered.

"What's your game plan, Hitsugaya?" asked Urahara after a moment.

"Well, we all know that they will attack again," the small captain explained, admitting that he must have heard about the events of earlier, with the two powerful Arrancar. "We do not know whether or not to expect a strike force immediately, but we know that Aizen isn't ready for a full attack as it is."

Naruto remembered Urahara's explanation from the other day, which he must have shared with Soul Society after all; why was this man so selective with what he did and didn't share? Aizen's plan was to sacrifice the souls of the juureichi, the highly dense spiritual location now found in Karakura Town, in order to create the Ouken, the Royal Key. To do that, he needed the Hogyoku at full power, and they were months away from that.

The former lieutenant did a quick headcount of their current fighters. The Soul Society's advanced team. Urahara, Tessai, Yoruichi, Isshin, and Ryuuken; although he supposed they shouldn't count on the Quincy's help. Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, and Tatsuki. And then himself. The Visoreds were hiding somewhere as well, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Urahara knew exactly where they were, but didn't say anything.

They had a powerful group, one that could even rotate responsibilities if it came down to a long-term siege of smaller skirmishes. However, if all of Aizen's forces were as strong as Ulquiorra and Yammy appeared to be, and if they were as numerous as Naruto pessimistically expected them to be, then the Soul Society and Karakura Town could be in terrible shape.

"What do we know about them so far?" asked Toshiro.

"As hybrids between hollows and shinigami, the baseline Arrancar will always be stronger than the baseline shinigami," explained Urahara. "A lot of what we know about them is unconfirmed, because these Arrancar are not like the natural ones we have usually seen in the past. The Hogyoku might not be fully capable yet, but it is more than enough to cause us trouble."

Naruto remembered his own experience with Yammy, about his ability to withstand seemingly awful blows.

"They also have extremely high spiritual density surrounding their body," explained Naruto. "Like a second steel skin. With the right amount of focus and power, it can be cut, but it's a strong enough defense to be dangerous."

"What of their zanpakutou?" asked Toshiro. "They cannot be that skilled at using them, because they haven't had the years of training we have."

Urahara frowned, not having thought of it that way. "The old 'nature vs. nurture' debate rears its ugly head again, doesn't it? Hollows are creatures of instinct, by their very nature, so they may instinctually be skilled with a blade, like an extension of their body."

Naruto scoffed. "Not the way that that lumbering idiot was swinging his sword. Maybe he was right handed, but I never would have even thought hollows could _have_  a dominant hand."

The shopkeeper chuckled, before gesturing for them to follow him. "Let's have some tea."

"What about release? Do they have shikai? Bankai?" asked Toshiro, exasperated by the idea. They were strong enough as it is, so if they had entire other levels to their powers, they could seriously be trouble.

"More stuff we don't know. Complete Arrancar that occur naturally are nearly impossible, and if I remember correctly, the Soul Society has only encountered one in all of its history." Urahara and the two of them sat at the table, while Ururu disappeared into the next room to fetch tea.

Naruto hated the sound of that. "Really? What about this natural complete Arrancar? Was it as strong as these enemies are?"

Urahara frowned. "I wish I knew. All I know was that it was a severe threat a long time ago, enough that the Soul Society declared a state of emergency. That's as far as the records I ever studied showed."

Naruto sighed, knowing what that meant. "A Vasto Lorde Arrancar..." The idea of that powerful an enemy in Aizen's army was terrifying.

They stewed in that information for a moment before Ururu reappeared. "Mr. Urahara, Jinta and I can't find the tea." The shopkeeper chuckled and disappeared to help them find it.

Toshiro met Naruto's glance. "How are you really feeling? I mean, you didn't exactly leave the Soul Society on the best terms."

Naruto clenched his fist, reminded briefly of all the reasons why he wanted to kill the egotistical bastard. "I just can't think of anything beyond getting to Hueco Mundo and getting her out of there, to be perfectly honest." At the mention of Momo, the captain frowned. "I don't have any goals beyond that, and it seems so out of my usual element. Before all of that happened, I was content with living from day to day with Momo, the two of us working together to get stronger and help the Soul Society. Now that all of that is stripped away, I feel unfocused. After this whole crisis is over, and Momo is safe, I don't know what I'll do."

The man nodded solemnly. "I know what you mean. When I finally became a captain, I wasn't necessarily aiming to become one. But when Captain Shiba left, it inspired me to keep going to feel that vacancy. Now that I'm here, I want to serve where I am. Momo always joked that I'll be Head Captain one day, when Head Captain Yamamoto is dead and gone, but I just doubt it very seriously."

Naruto remembered the late night conversations they had had after Captain Shiba disappeared, and Naruto wondered if it was right to tell him that Isshin was in that very city, or if he already knew. Naruto and Momo had inspired their friend to become captain, and Toshiro himself had inspired Naruto to rise in the rankings, but Naruto didn't know what to think, now. He had always imagined that he, Toshiro, and Momo would all be captains one day, but that seemed impossible.

"I'm sure you could do it. You've got the right mindset for it, even if you're too young to really think about it now," he said with a smile. The captain laughed, as Urahara walked into the room with a kettle of tea and glasses for all of them.

"Good news, Naruto." He turned toward the man, a tiny bit of hope filling his eyes. "I was staring out of my window when a bird flew by. A bird! Can you believe it?"

He sighed, inwardly debating whether or not to throw the entire glass of hot tea on the man. "And?"

"Well, the last word on the spell we're missing is supposed to be a bird!" The man was so excited, and Naruto himself finally realized it. "Don't you see? We can narrow this down now!"

Naruto shot up and disappeared into the room, already debating the pros and cons on what the elements of a bird would do for the Kido's spell array, in order to figure out what kind of bird. "Come on, Toshiro, you can help me! We're going to save Momo!"

* * *

He could feel the distance he was putting between himself and his friends, feeling as though only he alone could save them, protect them, and keep them from harm.

Orihime was trying to put on a brave face, but the girl had strained her reiryoku; she refused to talk about it, putting others before herself. It was a unique selflessness that he admired, a trait that all of his friends shared with each other.

Chad was not in school again, and Ichigo was too distracted to know if he was nursing injuries or if he was training again, like he had been for weeks. He was sure there was a text message explaining his absence in his phone somewhere, but he'd left it at home.

Tatsuki was the most unchanged after the attack, but he didn't know how to read her anymore. Other than the cast wrapped around her arm, she seemed normal enough, but he knew deep down that she had to be mentally struggling just like he was. The two of them were far more similar in the way they handle stress than he cared to admit. But he wondered if Uzumaki's shinobi training was sinking into her personality and causing her to begin masking herself, without even realizing it.

He cursed again, realizing very quickly that there was a whole other atmosphere of problems that he didn't want to deal with right away. His sister had discovered his secret, and while she had been in harm's way before, his ignorance of her budding abilities had given him a false sense of security. Now he had to worry about Karin constantly, because if she were to ever develop powers, he was sure she would jump in to try to save the day too.

Ichigo glanced up at the clock, the reflection in the glass staring back at him. After a split second, the skin suddenly grew pale, his hair stark white, and his eyes shifting into a deep gold atop a black sclera. He recoiled suddenly, nearly falling out of his desk while trying to look away and locked eyes with Orihime.

The look on her face pleaded to know what was wrong, but he didn't know how to explain any of it yet. He was about to wave it off and let her know he was okay, when a small amount of blood trickled from the girl's nose, shocking him out of any selfish worrying he had before.

"Orihime?! What's wrong?" He rushed over, as most people in the class did. Chizuru tried to make a big deal, but Tatsuki stepped in front of her.

A nervous Keigo said, "Oh, Orihime, my precious sweet! I'm sure you'll be fine! You probably just ate something wacky that upset your sinuses!"

Ichigo knew it was something more serious than that; he had never been the best at sensing reiatsu and deciphering its status, but the girl was in serious distress. Nosebleeds were not rare, but a nosebleed in combination with her spiritual energy fluctuating was impossible.

When Orihime tried to speak and immediately fell unconscious, Ichigo lifted up into his arms. "Miss Ochi, Tatsuki and I are going to run her to the nurse!"

As soon as they were out of earshot, Tatsuki got his attention as they practically half-ran, half-walked through the hallway. "Ichigo, do you feel that? And look at her hairpins!"

Ichigo looked down at the girl's temple, realizing with a start that there was a crack running down the length of her left side, nearly snapping it in half. "Oh no. This has to be from that new power. We need help!"

They passed an odd group of people as they ran out of the building, barely registering them until everything clicked into place. Dressed in school clothes were a group of shinigami, all come to bug the hell out of him, he was certain. Renji, Yumichika, Ikkaku, Matsumoto, and even Rukia. The second the petite girl noticed them, she bolted over with a start, concern spreading over her face.

"Oh no, what's wrong?"

"Her nose started bleeding, and she fainted. Her hair pins are cracked. I don't know what's going on!" Ichigo hated admitting that, but there was only one person who could possibly know. "I'm taking her to Urahara!"

Rukia reached into her a bag, pulling on a glove and smacking him the forehead, his soul form expelling from his body while still holding onto the girl. "You really should have Kon for situations like this, Ichigo. Matsumoto, Ikkaku, Yumichika, stay here with his body."

Within a few seconds, Rukia was on Ichigo's shoulders and Renji had exited his own gigai, Tatsuki on his back after the redhead nearly disagreed. There wasn't enough time to argue, Ichigo realized.  _She could be dying!_

* * *

Naruto was always amazed walking around the modern city of Karakura Town, but he didn't have time to look at the sights. A girl's life was at stake, and the love of his life was on the line. He wished that someone else had gone to meet them, but Urahara insisted that he go and had everyone else of their little group very busy. He still argued it, but Urahara's words won him over.  _"We all have a role to play, and your part in the plan is beginning here. This is an excellent opportunity to get the ball rolling. I know that Momo is waiting, but I will keep developing the spell while you're gone. As soon as Orihime is safe, all of our manpower will be dealing with how to get you to Hueco Mundo."_

This was potentially the only option that they had; Urahara was sure of it, and it played into the overall plan against Aizen that Naruto and the other exiled shinigami had devised. In the past few days, he'd fully realized the man's intelligence, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he shouldn't be trusted. He remembered Ichigo's conversation about Rukia and the Hogyoku right after they returned from the Soul Society, about how he had orchestrated the whole thing by using Rukia, and was at least partially responsible for Aizen's current movements now. No, Naruto imagined it would take a long time for him to shake that mistrust from his mind, and he knew it might be even harder for Ichigo.

When he found the address, he wasn't surprised that he could feel nothing there spiritually. It was a larger warehouse near the river, on the outskirts of town, but nothing more than any of the others. He couldn't be sure this was it, but he couldn't waste any time.

Pulling on the Kyuubi's chakra, he felt his body and senses shift into a more focused state. Raising a seemingly clawed hand, he reached forward and found it, a Kido barrier suddenly flaring into sight, spreading from his touch. He yanked his hand away before it could repel him, but the barrier remained in sight; based on its structure, it was truly impressive.  _A series of level seventy Bakudo formed together with such personal precision... I bet Momo could figure out exactly which ones were used, but there's no way we could break them even if we worked together._

He purposefully recited a small incantation, a detection spell that left a small ringing sound that reverberated off of the barrier; it was the only one that was low-level enough to not attract unwanted attention, but high-level enough to get their attention.

"I know you know I'm here," he half-shouted, half-growled, before realizing he needed to pull it all back in. The Kyuubi receded, a burning sensation remaining in his lungs for a moment afterward, before healing. "Kisuke Urahara and Tessai Tsukabishi extend an olive branch. We need your help, or an innocent girl will die."

He reached for his blade, undoing it from his back and placing Kusaritane on the ground at his feet, before bowing in front of the building. "Please. I mean no harm."

The moment that he heard something open before him, two people suddenly appeared, followed by a third. A medium-height man with silver-hair and a tank top, a girl with glasses and dark hair tied back, and a very large man with odd pink hair and a suit to match. It was the latter that had his attention.

"Please, Ushoda, can you come with me? The rest of you may stay here if you want, but she needs your medical attention immediately."

"Who are you?" asked the girl.

"No time to explain; Tessai has been working non-stop, but he can't handle it alone. He needs your help to save her, Ushoda!"

* * *

Ichigo sat, hands around his knees, in the hallway, Zangetsu leaning against the wall beside him. He was sulking, choosing to push more and more guilt onto himself in levels that could not possibly have been healthy. Rukia looked anxious and worried across from him, while Tatsuki was about to fall asleep at any moment. It had been hours since they had arrived, and she had not slept well the night before.

"I hate this," he said, realizing very quickly that everything about this was just wrong; he gave Tatsuki a look, having woken her from a daze with his sudden outburst. "I don't want any of you involved. This world is too dangerous for you."

"It's too dangerous for you too, dumbass. It's too dangerous for anyone," Tatsuki said simply. "You think I don't feel the same way you do? I don't want Orihime involved, I don't want Chad hurt. I don't want any of this for anyone. But now that we  _are_  involved, the spiritual world is going to keep hitting us with these moments until we have to fight back. And we're all in this together now, Ichigo."

He shook his head. "No. This is as good a time as any for you to give up, for you and Orihime and Chad to vanish into a normal life." He turned to Rukia. "Surely there's a way to seal powers away, right?"

The woman stood up and walked over simply, an expression on her face that he couldn't read. Was it positive? Negative? Did she agree with him? Did she hate him, blame him for what happened?

"Get up, Ichigo," the woman said, offering her hand while standing over him. "Get up now. We've been waiting here for something to change for far too long, and it's clearly not going to for much longer. You and I need to have a talk." When the orange-haired Substitute Shinigami finally agreed, taking her hand to pull himself up.

"I'm coming too," Tatsuki started to say, but Rukia shook her head, expressing a look that must have silenced her.

"Watch over Orihime. They'll save her, I promise. It's just a matter of time. It won't be much longer!"

Ichigo grabbed his sword and followed Rukia outside the shop and into the street nearby, wondering what any of this was going to accomplish. "I don't get why yo-"

"Shut up, Ichigo," she muttered finally, hopping onto his back and telling him to flash out of the way. As soon as they stopped, they were several blocks away from the shop, standing on the rooftop of an office building.

He looked around the city, realizing he was in the densest part of the area, watching over it all. From his perch he could see the edge of the city, and Naruki City across the river. The Substitute Shinigami turned to clear his head, looking at Rukia. The woman was standing vigilant, looking over her former protectorate like she had never left. There was an odd look on her face that shouted confidence and fear and concern all at the same time, but it was masked under caution.

He suddenly realized that she had layers he had never begun to understand, like past tragedies and conflicts that no one should have to handle. It was like seeing someone for the first time all over again, and he felt more endeared to her than he ever had before.

"Ichigo, you can't leave your friends behind," she finally said after a long moment of studying the river far beyond them, glinting with the moon's reflection. "They are a part of this now."

He considered her words for a moment, biting back a retort. It wouldn't do him any good to argue. "So it's not possible to remove their powers?"

She glared at him. "Why would you want that for them? They are willing and able to fight, and even if it might be safer for them to stay away, they are involved now. Take their feelings into consideration, Ichigo!"

"What do you mean?"

She scoffed, a playful annoyance spreading across her face. "You're impossible. All three of them chose this life; Urahara gave them the option, and they chose to open that door. Do you want to know why?" When he looked confused, she sighed. "It's because of you. Chad and Orihime saw you fight the Menos Grande and chose to support you. Tatsuki willingly accepted her powers after knowing about all of her friends going to save me and not being able to help. They all want to help you, Ichigo, but it's not your choice to deprive them of their powers. They have their own agency!"

He frowned, some part of him wanting to ignore her and continue to choose what was best for them, even if it was against their wishes. "That may be true, but I'll only hurt them! They should stay away from me, Rukia." His heart plummeted at the realization. " _You_  should stay away from me. I don't know how much longer I can do this without hurting any of you!"

She paused and then walked forward, standing only a few feet away from him and looking closely, studying his expression. "I already know about your inner hollow, Ichigo. Your powers are spinning out of your control, but they are still your powers. They are subject to  _your_ will." She pointed at his chest. "You still have what hollows don't, and that is what makes you stronger than them. But if you let that hollow influence your heart, you'll fall into despair and the hollow will win." She pulled a hand away and smiled. "And since when have I ever known you to go down without a fight?"

* * *

The tension was heavy in the air, and if all of the powerful figures around her decided to fully unleash their spiritual pressure, she was sure her soul would be ripped apart. She had to remind herself to be confident; looking at her silver-haired former captain usually was enough.  _Gin wouldn't allow me to get hurt._

She found her brother's eyes, the red-headed Arrancar at her side. The boy had an aura of power, but nothing in that power reminded her of the boy she had known. Despite the fact that his face was so familiar to her, she had wondered if the boy was even actually her brother. But Gin was the one who collected him after all, and assured her of the truth.

The King of Hueco Mundo walked regally into the room, eliciting a nearly silent scoff from the oldest Arrancar of all of them, staring longingly at the head of the table. Temari stood near the side of the room, with Gaara beside her, and Gin and Tousen stood at Aizen's right and left.

Ulquiorra and Yammy strolled into the room, the smaller of the two holding the empty space over his right eye until it could heal. He had just shown them all his experience with their mission, explaining the larger man's injuries. Temari smirked, realizing that was the second time that she had seen someone with a limb removed in the last few weeks.

"Good for all of you to meet on such short notice," the man at the head of the table said, glad to see the other Espada had gathered after Ulquiorra and Yammy's initial return. "I hope you weren't interrupted with anything."

 _He's talking about Starrk,_ Temari realized with a grin, remembering the fact that the Primera Espada had missed the meeting entirely, despite Lilynette's annoying yelling and ranting.

"What's the point of this meeting, Lord Aizen?" asked Grimmjow, obviously annoyed. "Haven't we heard their ridiculous story already?"

The man smiled coldly. "Yes, of course some have. Not all of us have heard their testimony, but I'll debrief them all later. We need to discuss other developments."

"Wouldn't it be prudent to discuss it with everyone now?" asked Tousen, staring unnervingly directly at their leader, despite his blindness. "Was this mission not our top priority?"

"As Ulquiorra has demonstrated, the initial purpose of the mission to test the nature of Ichigo Kurosaki's abilities did not go quite as planned, but useful data can be deciphered from it," explained Aizen carefully, glancing at Ulquiorra and Szayel. "But our immediate top priority has shifted slightly based on this new information."

Temari wondered what he was referring to, but did not comment. Surprisingly, he gestured for her to come closer. "Yes, Lord Aizen?"

The man nodded to her as she walked to the corner of the table, crossing in front of Gin. "Temari, if you would be so kind, could you please explain where Yugito Nii is?"

Her eyes widened as much as the rest of the Espada, only Szayel's expression impassive. Grimmjow looked like he wanted to know who the hell that even was.  _That mission is a secret... why would he want to share that with them now?_

"Of course, Lord Aizen," she stated automatically, before turning to the Espada. "Yugito Nii is the final member of the Nueve Colas." Gaara looked on with interest, but did not comment.

"Well, it certainly makes more sense now," commented Harribel, running a blonde hair out of her eyes. "There are supposed to be nine of them, and we have only six of their members in Hueco Mundo."

Ulquiorra nodded, flexing his newly regenerated eye and finally lowering his hands. "Yes. For those of you are unaware, Naruto Uzumaki has the Kyuubi and I met the Nanabi jinchuuriki myself. Yugito Nii holds the Nibi."

"Stupid human bitch punched me in the jaw a lot harder than I would have thought possible," Yammy declared, a bruise on his skin.

"Odd. I did not think that Naruto Uzumaki was an Arrancar?" asked Zommari, drumming his fingers on the table.

"It's not exclusive to Arrancar," explained Temari, before looking at Aizen. "Should I give the long version, or the short version?" The man nodded for the latter. "The short version is that the Bijuu are constructs of chakra, an energy unique to the peoples found on the Elemental Nations." She pointed to the Novena Espada. "I'm sure Aaroiniero can explain all about the Elemental Nations, but for now, what you need to know is that any being, no matter if they are human or shinigami or hollow can hold a Bijuu."

"What about this Yugito Nii then? What is her mission?" Grimmjow asked.

Temari smiled. "Yugito was instrumental in getting Naruto Uzumaki away from the Soul Society, by pinning the blame on him and striking fear into the hearts of the nobility of the Bijuu. She has been hiding in the Seireitei since the incident, lying in wait until her next move."

All of this was news to almost everyone in the room. "Why should we care about that bastard?" asked Yammy. "What's so special about him really? Couldn't we put the Bijuu in any random Arrancar?"

"I concur," Barraggan said with a hint of a smirk on his ancient face. "Perhaps one of my Fraccion would be a suitable candidate."

Aizen smiled, ignoring Barraggan. "Good question, Yammy, but there's an equally good answer. Thanks to our ministrations, and especially thanks to you, Aaroniero, we have secured seven of the nine Bijuu into viable jinchuuriki loyal to us, and all of those jinchuuriki have a certain familiarity with their Bijuu." He raised a hand to the redheaded Arrancar standing in the corner, leaning against the wall. "As you all know, Gaara is a jinchuuriki, a member of our Nueve Colas. Is there anything you'd like to say to the Espada?"

The boyish Arrancar didn't say anything for several moments before finally clearing his throat. "My group and I are looking forward to working with you, but if any of you try any of your bullshit, we will not hesitate to kill you and spread your corpses across the desert." For added emphasis, his reiatsu flashed for an instant across the room, his eyes turning yellow with power. Nnoitra made a move for his sword, just out of anger, but Aizen cleared his throat.

"None of that now."

Temari smiled at Gaara's antics, proud of her brother for his display, but also terrified that the Espada would not see them as equals. But before realizing Aizen's ultimate aim in having her capture Momo Hinamori, the girl currently locked away in one of the many towers.

_It's all a trap. A well-executed, multi-layered trap._

"So what of this mission?" asked Harribel. "Why tell us about Yugito now?"

Aizen smirked. "Well, she's currently working on gathering someone that will be much more instrumental than our plans later down the road. But I'm sure you all realize the implications of one of our own being behind enemy lines."

Szayel's eyes widened behind his glasses. "She's behind the Shakonmaku... How did you sneak her in there?"

Aizen scoffed. "I didn't have to sneak her in there. I was a Captain of the Soul Society for decades. It was easy to bring her into the fold before I left."

"You left her behind when you used the Negacion," said Starrk, a bored look on his face. "It's brilliant. They won't even know she's there."

* * *

"We've already tried to recruit him," explained the larger man, his pink hair bathed in greenish light; Naruto thought of Tsunade's medical ninjutsu.

"Shinji thinks he is foolishly stubborn," said the brunette woman, barely watching behind her glasses. "He  _will_  hurt the people around him unless he comes to us."

Naruto's mind was barely paying attention to their conversation about Ichigo; everything was about Momo. "We need his powers to become stable. I know a little bit about this subject, from my own experience." The blonde rubbed his tummy, watching the unconscious orange-haired girl's face surrounded by one of Hachigen's force-fields.

"He doesn't trust us to tell him that though," Lisa said. "We're nothing more than enemies to him. He doesn't fully understand the kind of power he possesses, and he won't listen to us to understand it."

Naruto nodded, thinking of the spell again, before something finally clicked. "Ushoda-"

"Please, call me Hachi," the Visored interrupted.

"Okay, Hachi. Do you think you could help Tessai and Urahara with something else?"

"Isn't saving this girl's life enough?" asked Lisa quickly, daring him to add demands.

"No, Lisa, let's hear him out." Hachi had a calm, concerned personality that he honestly had not expected; Naruto had half a mind to believe all people with hollow powers were evil.

"Well, I need a spell to get to Hueco Mundo," he said, before going into an explanation about Momo and the spell to the Garganta. "The one-way spell is nearly complete, and honestly, that's all I really need. But Urahara thinks it would be safer to have a two-way spell first, so it could be a few days or a few weeks." Naruto wasn't sure he would wait that long; as soon as he had the one-way spell, he was going to sneak away. But if Hachi could speed up that situation, maybe he could wait a little longer.

Lisa and Hachigen shared a glance, unsure. "You love her, don't you?"

He looked at the woman before him, frowning solemnly. "Yes. We've been together for years, and I can't stand this."

Hachi looked like he was about to speak up, but Lisa cut him off. "Then we'll make you a deal."

"A deal?"

"All of us will work on getting you a Garganta," she explained. "And you'll help us recruit him."

 _And once again, it all comes down to Ichigo,_  Naruto thought a little bit bitterly.

 _"The Soul Society needs him, Naruto. You know as well as I do how important he is, and his potential,"_ Kusaritane offered.

**Eh, I doubt the kid can do as much as everyone thinks. I've never been impressed with this rookie. I don't know why you'd bother, or why you've taken so much time focusing on other people. The girl is waiting on you, and you're sitting here playing with the humans.**

_But Kyuubi, Urahara might be adjusting the plan to take out Aizen to not make him the trump card, but he's still needed. I'm trying to look at the bigger picture, but I have to agree with you. This deal might make the wait shorter._

"Fine. I'll talk to him," he finally said, earning a smirk from Lisa. "I don't know how much good it will actually do, but I'll help you get him, if you'll help me get her."

Naruto made to stand up from the small room, knowing that Ichigo couldn't be too far away from here. Last he checked, Rukia had taken him away from there. He angled down to look at the human girl. "Any chance she'll survive?"

The Visored nodded. "Yes, but not without consequences."

Lisa raised an eyebrow, but Hachigen seemed reluctant to speak about it. "I don't want to ruin it by talking about it. She might be one hundred percent fine." Naruto tried to press the issue, but the man ignored it and continued to concentrate.

* * *

"Where are you taking me now?" asked Ichigo, shouting as the girl on his back held up her phone, a slight alarm ringing. If he focused hard enough, he could sense the general direction of where he thought they were going, but his powers were too out of his control to really know for sure.

The more he thought on Rukia's words, the more he realized she was right; they were his powers, and that hollow wasn't going to take them away from him. He just didn't know where to start.

"I see it! It's over there!" Rukia shouted, pointing downward.

They reappeared in the sky out of a Shunpo, looking down at the gray-white hollow with blades on his hands that he assumed were supposed to be some kind of intimidating claws, a tail wrapped around his body. Its head jutted out nearly as far as the tail did, like the spine extended into the skull to give it an elongated, pointed shape.

"A hollow?"

Rukia suddenly kicked off of his body, forcing the boy to dive out of the sky toward it. "Yeah! Now go get him!"

Ichigo screamed as he fell, landing hard on the ground in a cloud of dust. He never got to finish his statement as the bladed hand whipped toward him; instinctual speed shoved his body out of the way. "Whoa!"

"What are you doing?!" shouted Rukia. "This is a low-level hollow! You've fought against captains, and this is the best you have! Your powers are your powers, Ichigo! Prove it to me that you have them under control!"

He focused hard on the hollow before him, evading another slash of the creature's hands before putting a hand on the hilt of Zangetsu. "You're annoying! I have thi-"

Something ran through his mind, a straw thought that hit him so hard it sent a chill through his very core, punctuated by a burst of nearly imperceptible powerful reiatsu. The image of a black eye with yellow irises terrified him, stopped him completely in his tracks, and it was just long enough for the creature to hit him hard in the chest with its tail, at the same time as a hand, cutting his skin while forcing him to go flying several yards away.

"What was that!?" shouted Rukia. "You're not even trying to take control!"

The orange-haired shinigami gripped his sword harder, drawing it immediately. "Shut the hell up!"

His movements were wrong, his slashes imprecise, like they were moving of their own accord and against his will. His reflexes were unstable, his battle intelligence skewed. Everything was wrong, and there was nothing he could do.

"Face the hollow inside you, Ichigo Kurosaki!" Rukia shouted, with all the fervor that he could. "Prove to me now why you have such loyal friends who would follow you into an unknown, dangerous world!" She had a hand on her chest, a thumb pointing to herself. But after a moment, she held out her hand and pointed at him.

"No. Prove it to  _yourself_  that you can crush any doubts, any insecurities, until you are nothing but the best! Don't let that hollow through your heart into despair! That's all it wants, and Orihime and the others would never forgive you for letting it win!"

He pulled his sword out and immediately felt the power rushing through the blade, the cloth falling away from the exposure to his power. Blue energy swirled to life around him, pure reiatsu gathering around him. The hollow before him halted in its tracks from the force of his power, but in a single instant, Ichigo clutched his forehead again in agony.

A single voice cluttered into his mind as the outer hollow prepared to strike again.  **Embrace me and you'll win. Don't, and you'll lose.**

"I'll do neither!" He shrugged off his paralysis and swung his sword at the same moment, slashing directly into the oncoming monster and cutting it in two with one swing.

The instant the hollow dissolved into reishi and began to disappear, he let the tension that had built up disappear. Rukia clapped once, a proud smile all over her face.

_Tatsuki, Chad, Uryu, Orihime, and Rukia... Next time, I'll definitely protect you._

* * *

The blonde former lieutenant looked on the group, adjusting her white uniform. As the meeting finally adjourned, she was already thinking about all the details that were necessary for her. Her Nueve Colas were coming along nicely, the wing of Hueco Mundo's military that was officially led by Gin, but actually managed by her. She ran through certain scenarios, and in all of them, Yugito was found and killed by someone before she could complete her task. It worried Temari to think that the Nibi Jinchuuriki was alone in the Soul Society, unable to do anything to protect herself if someone came upon her; she was the only sane female member of their little group, and it would be a huge loss to lose her.

When she finally left the meeting, Temari knew her part in the overall plan was coming. Gaara clicked his tongue as they left the room, "Should I tell the others, sister?"

Temari nodded. "Yeah, let them know about what they mean to do with Yugito. Just make sure Yagura is still isolated; his mask only cracked a few days ago, and he's a little unstable after Aaroniero added the Bijuu to his mind." The redhead vanished in a dash of Sonido, the buzz of the vibration reverberating throughout the hallway.

She eventually flashed out of sight after a shared nod with Gin, arriving in her neck of the palace only a few minutes later. She opened the dungeon-like room, expecting to see her lying on the mattress, but instead finding her wrapped in the sheet, in the corner, shaking hysterically. Momo's hair was knotted and completely out of sorts, and there was a tiny bald spot where she had pulled some of it out of the socket. Tobiume was nowhere to be seen, but the girl laid on the ground, unsure of what to do.

"If you don't stop shaking, you're going to pull your sutures," explained Temari, referring to the surgical work that had been used to stop the bleeding from her arm-stump. They had cauterized the wound shut, but it had not been done perfectly for a reason.

The broken girl didn't say anything, didn't even look up. She clenched her fingers tighter to her elbow, her stump shaking ever so slightly.

"Aizen will get what he wants out of you," Temari said with a smirk. "After another few days of this kind of torture, he'll visit you and all of those feelings will resurface that you've tried to hide deep down, for Naruto's sake. You'll probably beg to do anything to please your captain by the end of this."

After another long moment, Momo finally met her gaze, a fury in her eyes that actually surprised Temari. "Naruto will find me and save me from this hell."

The blonde former lieutenant chuckled. "Do you even deserve for him to find you? He probably thinks that you left him for Aizen. What makes you think he's even _trying_  to save you?"

The brunette met her gaze, wiping away a tear that was falling down her cheek. "Because he's Naruto."


	34. Ambushed Vendetta

The cloak was supposed to hide all spiritual pressure from detection, but she felt nervous and utterly helpless. No matter how much training she had had for this moment, it was still terrifying to imagine that she was here, surrounded by enemies. Though most of them were inferior to her, she wasn't positive that she ever wanted to face a captain in a brawl. She figured she could face most lieutenants without a hassle, but since she'd only ever sparred against her own kind, she wasn't positive.

Her shinobi memories allowed her to see the easy weak spots in the defenses. It seemed that inside the Shakonmaku, the spiritual barrier formed by the sekkisekki walls, the shinigami were lax in their planning. Breaches in the city happened so infrequently that creating a crisscrossing maze of streets simply did not make practical sense for the people that lived there. But even so, she could see the problems in their defenses as clear as day, despite the fact that the moon hung high in the sky.

She marveled at its appearance, perpetually full and giving enough light that seeing was easy, even without her particularly good eyesight. The chakra of the Nibi ran through her body, giving her feline qualities that more thoroughly matched her own and enhanced her sense.

Every time some patrol passed her, she snuck into the shadows and was able to hide so easily. It frightened her how easy it was; were they so inferior that they couldn't see an enemy with their own two eyes?

She suddenly felt much better about their chances in this war. She was confident they would win: how could they lose? But she wondered how many of her allies would be alive on the other end. She was sure the shinigami would be completely exterminated and Aizen would rule in their stead, the Arrancar his fellow subjects.

Yugito kept walking, finally discovering her destination: the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. Eyeing the cloak, she realized that that couldn't be good enough and grabbed a tiny object from her pouch. Snapping it in her fingers, it broke in half and produced a split in reality in front of her, shaped like a golden crack in the wall.

Sure that no one was watching, she slipped inside and closed it behind her, projecting her spirit energy in front of her to create a pathway. Inside the alternate form of the Caja Negacion was the most interesting space, a black and purple realm with gray blocks of assorted sizes and shapes. She was using it to close short distances without a fuss.

Yugito had used it to hide in the Soul Society without a fuss, their scanners unable to detect such localized dimensional tearing, and it could bypass everything inside quite easily. The only problem was the distance you could travel within was not without a limit; a hundred meters seemed to be the limit before you were supposedly trapped inside forever. There was no limit to duration, however, so she could stand in the same place all day if she wished.

She angled it downward, imagining what it looked like and being careful not to open it until she was sure she was ready. After several more minutes, she held up the cube and slashed her knife-like zanpakutou against it, opening another hole as it solidified into a whole again to be reused.

She stepped out into a secret tunnel, the entrance to the now-dead Kurotsuchi's private lab not even fifteen meters behind her. Yugito had no idea who committed the crime, but she wanted to thank them, because it certainly made their job much easier. She had a lot to tell Gin and Aizen when she returned.

After several minutes of walking calmly, she discovered what she was looking for. A room underneath the Daireisho Archives, the Great Spiritual Library as it was aptly named, was her destination. And the prize was lying against the wall on a pedestal.

She tentatively raised a hand, touching the sword and smiling carefully as soon as she did, feeling the jolt of energy running along its length. It was as though it was calling home, which she supposed was appropriate. Her fingers grasped the handle and jerked it from the pedestal, instantly charging her spiritual pressure underneath her palm as to give it power.

A blast of dark red energy suddenly surged from the blade, forcing her to drop it and back away, her Hierro damaged from the heat.  _He's strong..._

The walls around her suddenly cracked from the force of his reiatsu, dark red reflective energy blasting toward the ceiling from the sword, threatening to bring the entire tunnel down. Yugito was suddenly having second thoughts about being proud she was the one who was given this mission.

Laughter suddenly flooded the room, and the jinchuuriki leaped backward as far away from the sword as possible.  _This reiatsu is stronger than mine...!_

Another wave of energy hit her, smacking her against the tunnel and caving an entire section in, blocking off the tunnel to the SRDI. The only other way out was through the Archives, or through her Caja Negacion. She prepared to use it, holding it in her hands just in case she needed to separate herself from him, or lock him inside it.

The energy suddenly dropped, dying down to a bare minimum. When the light show ended, she looked up in surprise to finally see him. The only complete Arrancar to ever occur naturally, a viable ally on par with the Primera from reiatsu levels alone. His almost green hair and jaw bone like mask spoke levels of his power, his uniform the same stark white as hers. The Arrancar reached down and placed the sword back in its scabbard at his waist. An aura of power surrounded her, commanding her to stand in awe.

"I have to say, I'm incredibly glad you arrived," he said with a grimace. "Although I would have loved for the human girl to have been the one to free me. A little touch of her power would have been enough to unseal me weeks ago. I suppose it is fitting though, for an Arrancar as beautiful as yourself, to have freed me."

She gulped, afraid. "Arturo Plateado, my name is Yugito Nii. My leader requests your assistance."

"With what?"

"The destruction of Soul Society."

The man smiled. "You have my attention. Go on."

* * *

The Garganta opened with a swipe in the air, Hueco Mundo's forces stepping into the skies above the city in stride. Karakura Town stretched before them, the humans unable to tell that they were going to die in seconds at the onslaught of their powers. The Espada smiled almost in joy at the possibility.

His Fraccion stood behind him, a comrade and his own two warriors behind him. Grimmjow was surprised that it had been that easy to convince him to come, the mask on his face and long tan robe, over the standard white uniform. His two Fraccion were anxiously awaiting their task in all this, ready to get it started.

"Is this everyone?" he asked, uncertain if more of their army had decided to follow than just these. "Did anyone see you follow me?"

"Of course not," Shawlong said, annoyed at his question. "Grimmjow, on the journey to meet with you, I detected many spiritual pressures, very strong and contrary to Ulquiorra's report."

Grimmjow huffed. "Everyone, open your Pesquisas!" As they did, he opened his own and could feel the rush of several different sources of reiatsu, some of them the same and others much stronger than before. "Just as I thought. There are many more. Well... the Soul Society, I guess. Must be reinforcements."  _It's grown complex, all thanks to you. If you'd have done your job, this wouldn't have happened. You're soft, Ulquiorra!_

The night air was cool against his skin, and it was so nice that it almost removed his anger at people's idiocy. Almost.

"D-Roy! Shawlong! Edrad! Ylfordt! Nakeem!" He paused, thinking hard and looking down to watch the street below. "There's no need to hold back! If they have any spiritual pressure at all, I want them dead!"

His Fraccion immediately accepted his orders and buzzed out of sight. There was no way any of them would die, because all of the people here were chumps and would meet their end.

"Are we to move as well?" asked the man standing to the side, the two twin female Arrancar at his side. "Our orders are paramount, but I can feel a certain someone here that I have to face."

Grimmjow nodded. "Yeah, sure. Go for it. I'm not here to judge." He remembered their part in the plan. "Although I have no idea why Lord Aizen wishes to set those up, to be perfectly honest. Do we really need those if we already have the ability to form Garganta and all of Hueco Mundo at our control?"

The man shrugged lightly. "I'm simply following orders, sir. I'm here with you, but I have no relation to your actual plan here, just so we're clear."

Grimmjow just rolled his eyes. "However you can split hairs to avoid getting into trouble, be my guest. Although you coming along will help me and my Fraccion, I'm sure, when the shinigami realize we're coming and move to investigate all the foreign reiatsu."

The man waved it off. "Yeah, but that's their intention. We just need to set these up for the Novena Espada." He smiled brightly. "I think I know of a place where I can do that right now. And if I happen to run into a certain shinigami near that place, then I suppose I'll have to fight him, won't I?"

The Sexta Espada just grinned. "I like your style."

* * *

Naruto stretched with a smile on his face, already feeling the exhaustion creeping in. He hadn't realized it, but it had been more than twenty-four hours since he had actually slept. Far too many things had happened in the past few days, he was ready for a thirteen hour nap.

But he didn't have time to do that, nor did it feel like he ever would. The cup of coffee that Ururu slid in his direction, presenting an identical cup to Renji who sat across from him, was tempting, but he wondered if it would be better to sleep.

He knew he needed to find Ichigo, to talk with him so that he could complete his end of the bargain with the Visored, but he figured he had some time to rest. He tasted the coffee and realized that it was actually really good.

"Thank you for this, Ururu," he said with a grin.

"Yes, it's really good," Renji added. He too looked nervous, like there was something seriously bugging him. Naruto wanted to ask what that was, but something suddenly hit hard, seemingly shaking the very foundation of the air around them. A huge reiatsu signature was heading right

Naruto met Renji's gaze and the two immediately jumped to their feet. "What's happening?"

"They're here!" He popped a Soul Candy, leaping out of his body with a flutter of reiryoku, and the two of them ran outside, both in spirit form and moving as fast as they could.

The Arrancar arrived with a burst of sound, flickering into sight so quickly that it seemed impossible. A tall man with a youthful face appeared, his mask covering part of the top of his head and long blonde hair framing his face. The hollow hole sat in the center of his chest.

Renji smirked. "I can take him, Uzumaki. I'm certain of it. Go help the others!"

Naruto took him at his word, slightly glad that he had a moment to breathe, adrenaline running through his body and removing any pretense that he needed to sleep. "Okay. Be careful." He used Shunpo to speed away from the fight, trying to keep up with where he could sense everyone around him. Thinking hard about all the different signatures, he could feel far too many enemies alongside the friendlies. But when he finally found Tatsuki's familiar signature near her home, alone with an enemy bearing down in front of her, he flickered towards her location to help.

He barely drew his sword in time to block the strike that intercepted his Shunpo, pure instinct allowing him to move quickly enough. He pushed away from the Arrancar, a skinny man with a helmet-like mask on his head, some part of it extending downward to cover his eye. A braid of brown hair billowed in the wind behind him.

"Pleasure to meet you," the man said.

"Sure," Naruto agreed. "I'd like to make sure my student is okay, however, and you're in my way."

The man studied his expression. "Oh, she's the one who is fighting Nakeem now, isn't she? The other jinchuuriki."

Naruto's eyes widened. "How do you know about that?"

"Does it matter?" the Arrancar said, uncaringly. "My name is Shawlong Koufang, Arrancar Number Eleven."

The blonde raised an eyebrow.  _They have a numerical ranking system?_ "Does that make you the eleventh strongest, or something else? Because you're going to want to have a much higher number if that's the case, to fight against me."

Shawlong swung his sword once in his hand, spinning it around his bony fingers. "I'm simply the eleventh Arrancar created, although the ranking system is different for numbers ten and below."

"How so?"

"Do you expect me to sit here and explain the entire composition of the army to you?"

"Would you? Because that would be fantastic for our side."

Shawlong laughed, actually laughed, and Naruto moved in that moment to attack.

* * *

"They're making a hitlist!" Rukia shouted, staring into Ichigo's eyes with fright, her Soul Phone in her hand. "They're targeting anyone with the slightest amount of reiatsu in the atmosphere!"

Ichigo understood the implications immediately. "Chad and Orihime are at Urahara's shop!"

"Renji and Naruto are there, as well as Urahara himself," Rukia said, feeling like they would be the safest. "What about anyone else? The enemies are spreading out so diversely that not all of them are going in the same direction!"

"Are any of them heading here?" asked Ichigo, prepared to fight with his badge in hand.

"It doesn't seem like it," Rukia explained, eyes focused carefully on the phone. "Wait, I take that back! There's one coming right now!"

They barely got outside fast enough, Zangetsu at the ready, when the Arrancar arrived, stopping them from being able to get very far away from his home and his sisters. He vowed to fight harder to protect them, but Rukia stepped in front of him.

The child-like enemy had half of his oddly-shaped head covered a cloth, his blonde hair stringing over his face. There was a dopey expression to him, like he was hiding some kind of brain damage behind that cloth.

"I can take him. You be ready to back me up if I need to," Rukia said, drawing her blade. "My powers have fully returned. You don't have to worry about me. Just watch my back and protect Yuzu and Karin."

At the mention of his sisters, the Arrancar smirked.

* * *

Ikkaku leaped onto the top of the building, legs spread in a wide crouching stance and ready to jump into a fight. "So they're finally here, huh? It makes sense! C'mon, Yumichika!" He jumped from the side of the building, eventually followed by his closest comrade.

Almost immediately, something flickered into sight before them, a huge beast of a man with a mask running underneath his eyes that made it look like he had odd glasses shifted down from his eyes. His red hair went wild on the right side of his head, while his left was nearly shaved thin black. His white jacket was open, revealing a hollow hole in the center of his chest.

Ikkaku's gigai was stripped away, the bald shinigami pressing his sheathed sword against his shoulder, ready to intercept at any moment. "You must be one of the Arrancar I've heard so much about. I have to say, you do look impressive, but your mask looks stupid."

Yumichika laughed, removing his own gigai to enter spirit form. "I have to agree with you, Ikkaku. It makes you look truly ugly."

"Ugly!? I'll show you, ugly!" The man suddenly burst forward, a sound ringing in his ears, and Ikkaku barely raised his sword to block the powerful strike with his one-handed grip, other hand on the sheathe.

"Not bad, but you probably should have added some actual skill behind that attack, or you'll never give me an interesting fight."

* * *

Hitsugaya realized it immediately. "They're coming."

Matsumoto stared at him oddly. "What do you mea-" She paused, making it obvious to her as well. "Oh. That."

A single enemy stood in their way, a tan cloak over the expected white uniform of the Arrancar. A mask adorned the man's face, dark hair tied in an all-too-familiar way. He narrowed his eyes, unsure of why this man seemed so familiar.  _He doesn't have the reiatsu of the other Arrancar... He's a shinigami._

"If you think you're going to fight us, think again!" Matsumoto yelled, hand behind her back ready to draw Haineko. "You're sure to lose if you do!"

The man just laughed. "Is this one your lieutenant, Toshiro? Amazing. I would have never thought that you would let someone so ditzy around you."

_How does he know who I am by name? Surely Aizen must have told them all the names of the captains and lieutenants... but why does his voice sound so familiar?_

"Ditzy! Where the hell does that come from?!" Matsumoto shouted, prepared to engage on her own, but she wouldn't without his orders.

"My lieutenant is one of the most capable in the Soul Society, and I am offended by your words against her," Toshiro said automatically, drawing his sword, glimmering at his side in the moonlight.

The enemy stared intently at the blade in hand. "The magnificent Hyourinmaru! The most powerful ice-type zanpakutou in all of the Soul Society's history. What a fascinating blade." The man suddenly drew his own sword, immediately catching his attention.  _It can't be...!_  "I wonder what Hyourinmaru would feel like when it meets its twin in battle!"

A Shunpo-infused strike to the face was parried by a quick diagonal movement, before Toshiro himself made a counter-stab, putting as much force behind it as he dared without leaving himself open on too many angles. Another quick strike was met in the middle the two blades matched equally in force and shape.

"Captain! That's-"

"I know."

* * *

Tatsuki was already breathing hard, a kunai in her hand that was rimmed with yin chakra. Despite her status as a jinchuuriki and the stamina level that accompanied it, having to fight against someone when there was so much ambient spiritual pressure in the air from multiple fights was exhausting. She was sure that if her fight with the Arrancar before her was the only fight, she'd be winning.

Maybe that was overconfidence talking, however, because she had yet to actually make more than two scratches and a few bruises on this Number Fourteen, Nakeem Grindina. Her own body was riddled with wounds and sore joints, and she was barely able to keep up with his speed.

"You're not a bad fighter," she said, leaping into the air and hurling the kunai, hoping to distract him long enough for her to prepare another ninjutsu. Nakeem didn't bother moving out of the way of the kunai, that bounced off of his shoulder's thick skin, despite leaving a small stab wound in its wake. She was making a mark, just not doing more than that.

 **"Earth-Style: Earth Spears Jutsu!"**  She landed hard and immediately summoned several rods of earth, sharpened to a fine point, and fired them at the Arrancar. He used that speed technique to suddenly flicker behind her, and her battle reflexes were in tune enough to swing back around with a yin-chakra enhanced punch. It collided hard with the soft part of the hollow's cheek, still comparatively harder than normal skin, but the force was there.

"Wow. Where does that speed come from?" she asked, curious. "It's not like the kind of speed techniques I've seen before."

"It's called Sonido, and it is faster than the shinigami's Shunpo!"

She jumped hard and kicked upward, landing a foot hard on the creature's chin and feeling like she might have sprained her ankle at the same time she broke his jaw. He cried out in pain and grabbed at her leg, but the second he did, she tucked her whole body inward and flipped upward, planting both feet on his face and then jumping off of him, spinning through the air and landing rough.

Tatsuki took approximately three breaths before the Arrancar was at it again, swinging his zanpakutou faster than she could actually recover from. Making another series of hand-signs, she flipped backwards before her head could get chopped off and landed hard.  **"Earth-Style: Mud Wall!"** The street underneath her suddenly rose in front of her, blocking a fatal strike that would have certainly stabbed into her gut.

 _There was no way I'm going to live if I don't use it,_  Tatsuki realized carefully, using the moment to call on the power within the ring. That seals burned to life as she let the chakra of the Nanabi rush into her body, enhancing her in every way. A thick column of chakra rose and splintered off in nearly the same moment, some of it rushing around her body in a cloak that also manifested wings, two-tails worth of chakra.

Using her wings and the speed that it granted her, she flew into the air to avoid Nakeem's sword, dropping a weighted kunai down to the ground that suddenly exploded with the paper bomb attached, smoke surrounding her opponent's body.

"So this is the power of the Nanabi," Nakeem called out through the smoke, sounding surprised. "I always wondered how strong the jinchuuriki really were, and if they hold a candle to the Espada. You don't, of course, but you've grown so much stronger after using it that it makes me intrigued."

Tatsuki fluttered above him, prepared to once again use her speed if the Arrancar tried any sudden moves. "You don't seem the type to use words like 'intrigued.' I would have pegged you for a dumbass, to be honest."

Nakeem laughed as the smoke finally cleared. "No, I'm afraid not. That honor belongs to someone else." He jumped into the air suddenly, aiming to slice her in half, but that was just the moment she needed.

Tapping into insectoid flight, she whizzed by him so fast she nearly blurred out of sight, holding a kunai in her hand she did. Aiming for any of his vital spots, she managed to tag him in the back of the knee, stabbing the kunai straight through his kneecap.

Nakeem screamed in anger, spinning around with his zanpakutou, but she was already gone, far enough away that he couldn't hit her. He used that speed technique again, this time significantly slower either due to the injury or due to her increased levels of perception. Still, it was enough to nearly pierce her if she had not thrown up a foot and kicked away the flat side of the blade.

Panting, she moved into his guard and slammed a knee hard into his chest, and then grabbed his shoulders. In one circular motion, she brought her entire outstretched body around in a magnificent arc and then planted her feet again onto his shoulder blades. Nakeem spun out of control, landing hard on the ground.

Tapping into a third tail, the chakra shroud growing to extend a glow-worm like tail from the base of her back, she whirred through hand-signs as she dropped to the ground nearby.  **"Earth-Style: Earth Fist!"** Throwing her fist to the ground, she came up with the earth having completely incased her arm.

Nakeem had barely recovered before she flew up as high as she could dare, using three tails to increase her speed. The second she reached the correct height, she spun around and fell toward him, folding the chakra wings inward to increase her speed. The tail straightened out and her rock-covered fist extended before her.

Holding another hand-sign in her other fist at the ready, she slammed hard into Nakeem's stomach, causing him to scream out in anger. The attack was strong enough to pierce his skin, leaving a huge bloody hole in his body that was not unlike the other hollow-hole, just messier.

She shook the stone away, landing on the ground and withdrawing the beast's chakra, almost immediately suffering from exhaustion without its power to keep her going. She ignored it long enough to whirl through another combination of hand-signs. **"Earth-Style: Double-Suicide Decapitation Technique!"**

She pressed down on the Arrancar hard with her foot, her earth chakra forcing Nakeem to go underground. Only his head remained above, and she picked up his zanpakutou.

"You're not going to actually kill me with that, are you?"

She nodded. "Yeah, actually. I figure it'll be a little poetic to die by your own blade." She lowered the sword and stabbed him in the eye, and Nakeem almost immediately began to scream and then disintegrate, his zanpakutou remaining for a few seconds before it too vanished.

She dropped to the ground, unable to move anymore, as exhaustion set in.  _Am I ever going to finish a fight against a tough opponent without knocking myself out?_

* * *

When Chad finally awoke, he was shocked to see that he was in an unfamiliar room, surrounded by unfamiliar people. A large man with pink hair was holding a barrier over him and the person next to him. The girl was unconscious, but seemed healthy from his first impression. "Orihime! Is she okay?"

The man nodded. "My name is Hachi. She will live. And so will you."

Chad looked around the room, the only other person there being a brunette girl wearing what looked like a school girl uniform from a long time ago, glasses on her nose. "Where am I? What happened?"

He shook his head. "You are in Kisuke Urahara's shop, recovering from the battle with the Arrancar where you were wounded." Chad reached up with his left arm to touch his right, and it seemed like there was almost no damage, although it still hurt to move.

He radiated his spiritual senses, realizing something huge was going on outside, but he couldn't move. He tried to raise to his feet, knowing that there had to be a battle going on, but the barrier zapped him and forced him to stay down.

"I need to help them!" he shouted, moving his injured arm and testing the pain. It was definitely bearable.

"No. You can't," the girl explained. "Chad, if you go, you'll strain your spirit energy as far as the girl beside you did." She gestured to Orihime.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "Is something wrong with her?"

The man frowned. "Her soul... her soul can't hold onto her powers correctly anymore. The connection has been almost one hundred percent severed, and there might be no way to repair it." He gestured to her hairpins, both of which had a crack that ran down the length, nearly unable to hold together. "I can't repair the physical manifestation of her powers, nor can I heal the source of the powers within her. Within a few days time, her powers will be gone."

Chad's eyes widened, but he didn't want to comment. Lowering his head back to the pillow, he sat and waited, feeling the conflicts happening outside. He simply couldn't take it anymore, turning carefully to them. "If I leave now, and fight against them with my full strength, would I be able to make a difference without losing my powers?"

The girl frowned, thinking hard. "Based on their reiatsu levels, no. You need to fully recover, or you'll be as human as anyone else."

* * *

Naruto summoned Kusaritane quickly, trying not to think too hard about the battles going on around him. The enemy before him was powerful, although not nearly as powerful as the Arrancar he had briefly fought before, Yammy.

Using Shunpo, he flipped around the battlefield, launching his blade from all sides and angles in an attempt to skewer him quickly to end this. Shawlong seemed to have expert reflexes, able to evade them or block them away. The Arrancar side-stepped away from an attack that would have slashed into his neck from a diagonal angle, bringing up his sword in precisely the wrong way.

Naruto smirked and immediately flexed his reiatsu, guiding the dagger's trajectory in mid-air until the blade was wrapped around his torso so hard he couldn't move his arms. The dagger's prongs had latched into its chains, unable to get loose. "You're no match for me.  **Hado Number Thrity-three: Sokatsui!"**

The huge wave of blue fire cackled to life and enveloped the creature, who did not attempt to move or block it. He pressed more reiryoku into the attack, allowing it to become ever brighter and more powerful. Lesser hollows would have been completely incinerated just by the power, and he could feel the heat from his own attack against his skin.

When the smoke from the Kido cleared, however, the monster had nothing more than mildly burned clothing and burned skin in a few places, but was otherwise unharmed.

Shawlong merely looked at him, unimpressed and not bothered by the pain at all. "No. Your attacks are no match for my Hierro. Our iron defenses are incredibly dense, able to block the damage," he explained. "We have the advantage, able to take quite an assault."

He suddenly used that speed technique, the extended chain slacking while still attached to his body. Naruto brought up the gauntlet, defending a stab to his face without much effort, but the speed was nearly too great. He narrowly avoided a slash to his stomach, inches away from doing potentially fatal damage, but it didn't matter.

 **"Bakudo Number Sixty-one: Rikujokorou!"** Yellow rods of light impaled him in mid-stab, preventing him from escaping. Naruto retracted his blade, returning it to the gauntlet easily. "For someone so confident, why do your eyes looked terrified?"

It was easy to imagine that the Arrancar was scared; it was about to die, and hollows were creatures of instinct, driven by their need to survive. So when Shawlong was in a situation where he couldn't easily escape, he was sure to be scared.

"I'm not." His eyes suddenly flickered darkly, hands still holding his zanpakutou. "I can see your powers very clearly. You mainly employ binding attacks, both with your zanpakutou and your Kido, and then finish off your opponent. However, you hold back quite a bit of power however, and I wonder if you even know that you do it."

Naruto looked at the man quizzically. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would I hold anything back?" True, he wasn't using Bankai and he had not used his zanpakutou's special abilities yet, but the battle had lasted a few minutes. He'd not had a reason to do so, because he was still confident he could win.

"Tell me, Uzumaki, why you have not used the Kyuubi's abilities," the man stated simply, looking at him expectantly.

"Yeah, right. Like you're going to bait me into using that," he said automatically. "What, are you going to try to capture me somehow once I do? Bring me back to Aizen on a silver platter? No, I'm not falling for that trick, not that you would have the power to capture me anyway."

"Then taste my released state, jinchuuriki! **Snip, Tijereta!"**  Immediately, a blast of incredibly dense reiatsu blasted him backward, holding an arm up to his face as though that would block it.

The reiatsu faded away, but the creature was forever changed. Somehow, the sword in his hands fused to his fingers, becoming like sharp, long claws unto themselves. The helmet like bone mask on his face extended, one half completely covered and the other looking positively confident. His hair braid was now a long appendage, ending into a two-pronged blade that could probably be used to skewer the enemy at his command. Bone incased his shoulders, and Naruto had no idea what was going on.

His powers had ultimately skyrocketed, and the implications of that were disastrous.  _All Arrancar zanpakutou have at least one released state?_

* * *

Toshiro flickered out an intense Shunpo battle, the man able to keep up with him easily. He was terrified as to what he could be behind that mask, who the identity of the man before him truly was, but he couldn't let that interfere with the mission.

His zanpakutou was in its Shikai, but so was the opponent. The blades were truly magnificent, both as equally vibrant as the other. They matched in ability and differed in strength, although he had kept up with the other very easily.

"Amazing, isn't it, Toshiro?" the enemy suggested, marveling at the blade under his fingertips. "It's clearly not some poor imitation, unlike what the Soul Society would have themselves believe. It's the real thing, just like yours. If I had been the chosen wielder of Hyourinmaru, do you think I would have been Squad Ten's captain as well?"

Toshiro gulped, all his suspicions confirmed, but it was still impossible. Rangiku stared openly at the two of them, absolutely horrified by what she was seeing. "Kusaka?"

Without warning, the man swung his blade and ice shot from its tip, condensing in the shape of a great dragon, twisting toward the Squad Ten captain without mercy. Toshiro blasted forward with Hohou, not letting the ice touch him, before mimicking the same attack and watching the dragons clash with each other like they were alive. He didn't stop there, however, getting into Kusaka's guard and attempting to skewer him, to end this once and for all. But the two Hyourinmaru connected in the center once more, sparks flying.

"I have to say, I didn't expect you would fight so ferociously, but even I know that you could do better," the man said behind the mask. "Physically, mentally, spiritually; in almost all facets of battle, you should be crushing me, and yet, here I am, a testament to Lord Aizen's genius by being able to keep up with a captain."

Toshiro's eyes narrowed, but before he could say anything, a buzzing noise hit his ears, two Arrancar women suddenly arriving. They had a red and blue color scheme respectively, wearing the same uniform with different colored hair; they had to be twins.

"Have you succeeded in your mission?" the man asked.

"Yes." The red Arrancar answered, hand on her hip as she watched with an analytic eye.

"Should we head back to Hueco Mundo?" her twin asked, eyes glimmering at both captain and lieutenant.

Kusaka, or the impostor Kusaka, shook his head, still locked in combat with Toshiro's zanpakutou. "No, let's have a little fun. I'm sure we're justified in doing so, right?"

* * *

Naruto continued his onslaught, still confused as to why the man thought he was holding back. Regardless, he kept that in the back of his mind and chose to hit harder, to use all the power he could with every blow, and it seemed to actually make a difference.

The Resurreccion was a remarkable ability, Naruto realized. He'd tried to analyze it as he fought, trying to keep his distance and unable to do so, his base ability of that speed technique increased exponentially. The strength of his blows and his fighting style were all improved, as though the shinigami nature of the Arrancar conceded to allow it to become less human and more hollow, as though that somehow made him stronger.

He ran along the side of a building, flickering out of sight at the right moment and forcing the monster to collide into that apartment complex, the entire floor collapsing as he did. Flickering again, he shoved a fist forward, his dagger attached and tried to pierce the Arrancar's shoulder, but it suddenly spun its arm around and grabbed the space just after the elbow, flinging him back around as hard as he could. Naruto was unable to recover, slamming against the pavement hard enough to leave a crater of cracked tar.

The pain ruptured on his back, but he had to keep going, flipping onto his feet just in time to avoid being skewered by Shawlong's claws. The tail, however, whipped around and managed to hit him, leaving a long scrape on his left side that almost immediately began to bleed profusely.

"Damn," he muttered, jumping backward and immediately gathering spirit energy.  **"Rasentane!"**

The spinning extended attack fired so fast it was like a missile, surrounded by orange reiatsu that spun so fast it gave off energy trails as it went. The creature held up both arms to block it, and as it hit, the energy exploded in a fiery display of his spiritual pressure, resembling a sprouting speed.

Without missing a beat, Kusaritane still extended, he raised his palms, hands brimming with concentrated reiryoku.  **"Hado Number Seventy-Three: Soren Sokatsui!"**

The two huge attacks mixed into one fiery blaze, enough power to surely destroy the creature. The night sky was enveloped in bright blue light, probably able to be seen around the town by all of the other fighters.

Falling out of the blaze, Shawlong dove toward the ground, smoke trailing his body as he collided hard against the side of a building, once again causing the wall to collapse. Naruto flickered toward him, knowing it was still alive, and retracted his blade.

"You're done," he said, preparing to end him. "I have no idea why you thought I was holding back, but you weren't going to get me to use the fox, so I don't know why you would ever assume that."

Shawlong coughed, blood falling from his charred skin. He had the look on his face like he was surprised that it was going to end here, shocked by his state of affairs. "I just wanted to help Grimmjow, to help Lord Aizen." Coughing again, he meekly met Naruto's glance. "I owe everything to them. Surely you understand this!"

Naruto had to admit, he did understand the man. It wasn't his fault he was here. "Who is Grimmjow?"

The man coughed again. "One of the Espada... They are ranked one through ten, the strongest of all the Arrancar in Hueco Mundo. He is here tonight, and I doubt any of you can stand against him."

Naruto looked away, thinking about the battles that were taking place elsewhere. Was this Grimmjow fighting someone? Because if so, they needed back-up, pronto.

He felt the rush of reiryoku before it actually happened, and managed to Shunpo out of the way. Shawlong poured the last of his energy into a powerful Cero, the red energy beam streaking toward the sky right through where he had been standing. Naruto appeared again when it faded, instantly piercing the Arrancar's head with Kusaritane's blade.

* * *

Matsumoto tried to use Shunpo to get out of the way of the arcing blasts of fire and the lightning fast whip coursing with electricity, but they were too fast, able to stop her from having that advantage.  _They have some kind of speed technique that is similar to our own. Combine that with their defenses, and they are terrifyingly powerful._

While she was fighting his subordinates, the strange shinigami who might be called Kusaka was able to match Toshiro blow for blow, and was actually in the advantage. Witnessing her captain's Bankai was always impressive, but it wasn't as impressive now. The shinigami's ice flowers were breaking apart, proving that he can't fight against the man at full power.

Elsewhere, she was almost certain she could feel Ikkaku's spiritual pressure skyrocket to an amazing degree, and she had just felt Uzumaki's fight end. Renji Abarai had his Bankai activated in the direction of Urahara's shop, probably defending against a powerful enemy. Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki were fighting somewhere else against perhaps the strongest of the signatures, and another of the Arrancar just went down.

 **"Roar, Haineko!"** Her zanpakutou turned to steel dust just in time to block the whip from striking her, a defensive cloud able to make the lightning useless. A roaring blaze headed right for her, shaped like two fireballs spinning around each other in a perpetual ring, but she threw up her zanpakutou's hilt and was able to block that attack as well, before using her high speed technique to move out of the way.

Surrounding the blue Arrancar in her dust, she tried to suddenly compact it all in the center, to destroy the girl with the pressure. But the Arrancar's skin was too dense, unable to be penetrated, and the whip hit hard, electricity coursing through her body just as she heard the horrifying scream of her captain.

She screamed herself and tried to get out of the way, but only barely managed to bring Haineko up to absorb some of the fire heading for her, the ash dust not proving good enough as she was shot toward the ground by the hit, landing hard against a tree along the sidewalk.

Her captain was falling to the ground, most of his wings gone and she was only fifty percent certain that he was conscious.

She had only a few seconds, at most, before she needed to remove it, or they would all die. She grabbed the communicator from her pocket, pressing it to her ear.

* * *

Rukia watched in horror as the powerful man was able to completely overwhelm Ichigo, despite her every warning against fighting him. The Arrancar had bright blue hair, bone covering his jaw line and brimming with teeth, his jacket open to expose his bare skin. The hollow hole was in his chest, but the man was obviously unharmed by anything that happened.

She herself could barely stay conscious or aware of what was happening, unable to hear what they were saying to each other, the blood pooling around her as she bled to death on the pavement. The feeling of Grimmjow's hand gripping her internal organs might be the most chilling, painful thing she had ever experienced; she wondered if being destroyed by the Sokyoku would have hurt more, because the end result would still be the same. This man would kill them all, and Ichigo was next.

There was nothing she could do to stop them. After finally displaying her powers in a real fight after losing them to Ichigo months ago, she had easily destroyed D-Roy with her Shikai, but this man was on an entirely new level. Able to stop Ichigo's Bankai without a moment of trouble, Rukia was terrified.

Ichigo's spiritual pressure suddenly skyrocketed, a blast of red and black energy rushing from the tip of the blade and colliding hard with Grimmjow's body, flinging him through the air as he brought up his hands to defend his face against the crescent attack.

Rukia could barely see it, but Ichigo's fluctuating spiritual pressure must have proved strong, because the Arrancar was bleeding from an attack on his torso.

She knew it wouldn't be enough; the end was inevitable, and as she slowly slipped from consciousness, she prayed to whatever god was out there to protect him from harm.

* * *

The second the tattoo was removed, Toshiro could feel his power skyrocket to normal levels. Fighting with eighty percent of your power sealed away was the most arrogant thing he could imagine, but who was he to question protocol?

When he stood up, despite having been stabbed through by Kusaka's Hyourinmaru, he grimaced. "How are you alive?"

"Does it matter? I should ask you the same question, because I was sure you had already died," the man said, pointing to the bloody haori. "Although I guess this is similar to my own story, so yet again, we parallel. Both of us get a second wind to come back from certain death."

Toshiro's cold reiatsu froze the blood surrounding his wound, to keep him from bleeding out. He held the dragon's hand, prepared to unleash Hyourinmaru for all it was worth. His Bankai was already regenerated, restored by his power to control the water moisture in the air. But the man before him knew all about that all too well, able to perform nearly every ability. Toshiro was honestly terrified for what could happen if Kusaka used Bankai as well, because he knew what terrifying attacks it held.

"So how did you get up again anyway?"

"Gintei Kaijou was released," he said, gesturing to his lieutenant who was fighting against the two Arrancar women on an equal playing field now. "Shinigami of lieutenant class or above seal most of their powers away in order to avoid aversely affecting humans."

Kusaka seemed to understand it. "So you're at full power once more?" He gripped the blade tighter, prepared to send another onslaught of ice again. "Good."

 **"Hiyouruu Senbi!"** Toshiro's blade arced through the hair, sending a horizontal arc of ice that spread even farther as it traveled, but Kusaka merely moved out of the way, slinging his sword down. Toshiro caught it with the flat of his blade before pressuring him forward onto his knees, his power much stronger now. But Kusaka suddenly unleashed a dragon of ice from his Shikai, the close quarters making it difficult to avoid, and Toshiro was forced to jump back from the now huge form of ice that could have been a statue of himself.

He brought up his wings to defend against a fast-moving strike to his back, before turning around while preparing another arc of ice.  **"Guncho Tsurara!"** Several spears of ice suddenly launched at the opponent, but Kusaka flipped backwards and then stabbed forward.

 **"Ryuusenka!"**  A wall of ice extended from the stabbed point, rushing towards him to block the spears, but the Bankai was too powerful, Toshiro's attack winning out. The icicles crashed through it and littered the ground around Kusaka's feet, two of which collided with his sword arm and left leg, impaling him.

Toshiro wasn't going to let that moment end, using Shunpo to blast forward, his wings tucked in behind him. He prepared to stab him and end it all, but Kusaka suddenly fled, managing to get out of the way.

"You're strong, Toshiro. I am not surprised that you've managed to best me for now," Kusaka explained. "But the next time we fight, don't expect it to end the same way."

His two Arrancar women suddenly fled their fight with Matsumoto, their bodies riddled with small cuts from her zanpakutou, and joined his side. A Garganta opened behind the twins, each gesturing carefully and splitting the hole in the sky toward Hueco Mundo. Hitsugaya jumped forward, using blazing speed, but the man was able to get away, the gateway closing just in time.

"Who was this Kusaka?" Matsumoto finally asked after a moment of rest. "And why did he wield a second Hyourinmaru!?"

Toshiro sighed and refused to comment, keeping it to himself. For now, no one else needed to know that.

* * *

With an unconscious Tatsuki over his shoulder, Naruto arrived with a flourish, finding Ichigo quickly. Both Ichigo and Rukia were incredibly wounded, the former conscious but unable to do anything to stop the bleeding. The Arrancar were gone, most of them having been defeated, and he had to be glad about that fact, but there were still several troubling facts going on.

"What happened?!" he shouted.

"They got away," Ichigo said, annoyed like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "If Tousen hadn't shown up, Grimmjow would have killed me and then killed Rukia, if he hasn't already." He suddenly looked back, but Naruto assured him she was alive. "And my sisters are barely a few blocks away, and they were next. I can't believe this!"

Naruto frowned. "I can. You were horribly unmatched to fight them, your powers too in flux to make a difference. If you could harness those moments when your spiritual pressure is highest, I don't doubt you would have been strong enough. You're scary strong, Ichigo, for someone so untrained." The deal was still fresh in his mind, but he didn't know if it would actually be a good idea to waste time on this, while Rukia could be dying. Eventually, he decided the overall picture was more important, and was sure that she would be fine anyway. "Look. You need to go to the Visored. Accept Shinji's offer, and he will help you deal with your powers. We need that strength, Ichigo, because without it, I'm not sure if we'll be enough."

The boy forced himself to stand, running over to Rukia and placing her on his own shoulders, holding her wound tight to his hand. "You're right. Let's get her to some medical attention. Chappy, Kon, protect my sisters until I get back!"

Rukia's gigai and Kon nodded, having watched over the girl's unconscious form after Grimmjow nearly killed her.

Naruto patted him on the back. "Everything's going to be fine. The pressure is on, because if they decide to make this a nightly occurrence, then I'm not sure how this will end. Wars of attrition are fought by the side with the most numbers, and do we have enough highly-skilled fighters to outlast them?"

Ichigo seemed to understand what he was saying. "So I have a time limit. That's just great."


	35. Hopeful Dread

Momo was shoved to the sandy dunes, impossible sunlight streaking down on her injured form. Her only hand was no longer bound to her chest, the other arm gone and still stinging lightly. She was surrounded by so many high-powered enemies that she may as well be forcefully bound, the reiatsu enough to make her think twice about moving. Temari stood before her, her hands holding the sheathed Tobiume.

She had no idea what was going on, or why they would dangle her sword in front of her, only yards away from where she was. There were at least twenty five Arrancar, nearly all of them with identical skull-like faces and seemingly lead by the one with a horned mask and a long snout.

"What are you doing?" she asked, not daring to make any sudden moves, but it felt as though freedom was within reach. She seemed to be outside of the palace, and basically any direction but where she was right then would prove to be out of her clutches.

The blonde shinigami who seemed to be her handler smiled. "This is merely a test." Temari turned to the leader of the identical Arrancar. "Introduce yourself."

"My name is Rudbornn Chelute, Arrancar Number Sixty-One," the male voice stated. "These are my Exequias, the execution force of Hueco Mundo and faithful servants to Lord Aizen."

 _Execution?_  Momo thought, trying to ignore the crippling pain in her side from Temari's rough handling.

"Aizen is a merciful man, Hinamori," Temari explained, only receiving a scoff in return. "If you prove yourself worthy of his mercy, Tobiume will be returned to you."

Escape was so close to her fingertips, she could taste it. All of her hope was seemingly returned as she stared at the zanpakutou, hoping beyond reason to get it back. If she could somehow find Ashido Kano, assuming he survived their encounter, she could team up with him to keep moving until someone found them.

"What's the catch?" she said, her skepticism winning out.

"There is no catch," Temari stated with a laugh. "If you pass the test, you'll win the right to carry your sword again."

She couldn't focus on the why or the how, but she still had no idea how any of this would work. But when three of the Exequias walked forward and grabbed her to hold her in place, Temari smirked and pulled something from her pocket. Momo struggled against her captors, but she didn't have the energy to break free or avoid whatever Temari was going to do.

The other shinigami forced her mouth open, and when she tried to bite down on the traitor's fingers, Temari shoved some kind of pill into her mouth. Immediately, Momo tried to throw it up, thinking it to be poison or worse, but when she felt a swell of energy within her body, she realized what had happened.

Pressing all the spiritual pressure she could muster around her body, she began to glow with a light pink outline, and the Exequias was shoved away. Even Temari stepped away, as Momo's energy reached its peak levels again.

Before anyone could make any movements, a bolt of fiery kido exploded at her feet, kicking up sand and eliminating their field of vision for just a few moments. She barely side-stepped one of the Arrancar's identical zanpakutou, trying to channel whatever training she could muster; she didn't want to even imagine what it would be like to lose another one of her limbs.

Hado and Bakudo lit up the air, combining into deadly explosions that kept the Exequias away from her. Her mind was only on her sword as she tried to continually weave spells in and out of existence, combining everything from Byakurai to Hainawa. When a cord of blue electricity lit up and managed to drive one of the Exequias to his knees, another took its place and managed to hit her in the chest with a cut that slashed a shallow cut across her collarbone.

She tried to ignore the pain, throwing caution to the wind as she unleashed a Tenran against the ground to create a veritable sandstorm that hurled three of the men away from her.

After a few minutes, she was starting to realize the folly of this game, of this test, when she wasn't doing any lasting damage against any of them. Temari only watched with a smirk, and the Exequias intercepted every opportunity she had to attack either her or their master.

Pouring everything into her chant, she leaped into the air to avoid a triple zanpakutou attack from nearly all sides.  **"Bakudo Number One: Sai!"** Each member of the enemy except for Rudbornn and Temari was suddenly held back, their hands twisting behind them and forcing them to their knees. Momo braced herself in the air and took aim at the two in charge, preparing at any moment to change her plans. Neither of their expressions had changed, but the leader of the Exequias had his hand on his own zanpakutou.

The great tower was in range, situated above both of them. In the last second, she twisted her palm. **"Hado Number Sixty-One: Raikoho!"** An impossibly large blast of yellow lightning flickered through the air and collided with the building with enough force that some of it cracked apart, debris falling to the ground. Weaving another Kido in place, she passed seamlessly into the next as she thrust both of her hands outwards.  **"Hado Number Fifty-Seven: Daichi Tenyo!"**

The debris suddenly locked onto Temari's position, the rocks outlined in white light. They crashed like they were guided into a crushing funnel, a huge crash of dust billowing out from their location.

She zipped across the dunes, arriving just in time to see the blonde lying dead on the ground, a shocked expression on her face half-crushed face. Rudbornn was barely conscious, and the soldiers she had held steady had seemingly reverted to skulls lying helpless on the ground.

She picked up Tobiume, relishing at the feeling of her blade in her hand, and didn't have time to attach it to her belt as she immediately ran from the area, unsheathed blade guiding her as she felt it hum with familiarity under her fingertips. It was resonating with her soul, glad to be back with its owner, and everything was perfect.

Someone cleared their throat, and when she turned around after recognizing that sound, she didn't even bother letting him say anything. She embraced the blonde, planting a desperate kiss on his lips, not even trying to guess how it was possible that he was here.

"I'm so glad to see you!" she said with glee, kissing him again with all the fervor she could muster. Her breath was ragged, and Naruto's usual grin was on his face.

"Me too. Let's get out of here. We can kill Aizen later; we need to get back to Karakura Town."

She nodded and grabbed his hand, squeezing it as calmly as she could in the incredibly relieved moment, and they crossed the dunes in zips of shunpo, practically giddy and laughing with glee. She was so happy to see him, it almost didn't seem real.

In that instant, everything collapsed into dread, her hopes dying. All the inconsistencies seemed to mesh together into doubt, and she practically dropped to her knees, dragging Naruto to a halt by his hand. She didn't want to let go, but her logical mind forced it to happen.

Naruto placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, what's wrong? We can't afford to stop. One of them will catch us."

She couldn't afford to listen to him. Everything was too perfect: the sound of his voice, the smell of his sweat, the jovial laughter, even the heart-pounding feeling in her chest she felt when around him. It was all real to her, and she knew it was fake.

The illusion shattered like glass, and furious tears formed around her eyes. The sunny desert had disappeared, replaced by the empty prison cell. The smell of fresh, dry air was removed, replaced by the smell of her urine. Rudbornn and Temari stood by the door, obviously unharmed and not even remotely upset; in fact, Temari seemed relatively happy and she had never wanted anything more than to shove her entire sword down that woman's throat.

And standing above her where the false Naruto had been was Captain Aizen, his hand where Naruto's hand had been. She was too emotionally drained to try to move it, and it took several seconds for to remember that touch was poison. That this man was responsible for everything bad that had ever happened to her.

Her seething rage returned, bubbling up at the surface, and whatever energy she could muster was expelled outward. Aizen didn't seem to recognize it, but she didn't care.

"You won't break me."

The man just smiled, his cool eyes staring down at her. "Silly girl. I broke you long ago. You live in my world. And soon, everyone else will as well."

* * *

The dark white room stretched before him once more, several others already assembled, probably just to watch them be reprimanded by the man sitting on the throne high above them. Grimmjow couldn't stop his observation that the man was a pretentious, elitist bastard; then again, how much of the palace's structure was actually contributed by him and not by Baraggan? It wouldn't surprise him at all if the self-proclaimed "God of Hueco Mundo" was the reason for the ridiculous architecture.

Even so, he kept the thoughts to himself, glad that no one could hear them. He buried the small amount of grief he felt for his Fraccion deep, until he had the time to properly discard them later. After all, that was the world they lived in. The humans deluded themselves into thinking they were above the rules of nature. Only the useful survived, and everyone else should disappear.

Yin and Yang, Kusaka's Arrancar subordinates, immediately bowed to Aizen, but no one else did. Grimmjow knew that Aizen had the power to make them all bow if he so wished, but until that point, the Sexta Espada would keep his pride intact. He heard someone in the small audience that had gathered snickering behind him, but he didn't care enough to try to realize who it was. If they were laughing at Yin and Yang's display, that was Kusaka's problem.

"Welcome back," Aizen began, a small smile on his face.

No one said anything, and if Tousen had working eyes, he was certain the man would have glared at them. "Why so quiet? Don't the two of you have something to say to Lord Aizen?"

"Not really," the blue-haired Arrancar said, and the blind shinigami swiveled to the sound of his voice.

"What impudence!"

Aizen cleared his throat. "It's all right, Kaname. The truth of the matter is I'm not really that upset."

"But Lord Aizen, they-"

"I believe their actions were rather tactical, at least from the onset," the man began, glancing from his perch at both Kusaka and Grimmjow's faces. "Sojiro, I take it that the portals were secured during the venture?"

The red-haired twin spoke up for her master. "Yes, Lord Aizen. While they distracted the enemy, Yin and I established the Novena Espada's portals at key locations, and hid them behind barriers only accessible to us."

Sojiro nodded. "I understand that you probably wanted that to be done under different circumstances, but I saw the opportunity to use Grimmjow's anger to secure one of our objectives."

The Arrancar in question snarled, making a mental note confront Kusaka about that.

There was a long moment where Aizen said nothing, and the silence was tangible. When the man opened his mouth to speak, a small relief flooded Grimmjow that the silence was gone.

"It was understandable, Kusaka, but that doesn't mean that it is excusable. There is a time and a place for your personal vendetta, and that was not the time."

The Sexta Espada snickered lightly, and Tousen scoffed. "Do not laugh. Kusaka was wrong, but he cost us no soldiers and advanced our plans without the enemy knowing. You have no grounds to feel morally superior, now that your Fraccion are dead. The shinigami have learned more of our capabilities, and our army is five fewer."

Grimmjow turned to the man, anger rising and filling his face, and prepared to draw his blade, but Aizen cleared his throat again loud enough for everyone in the room to freeze.

"While your actions were foolish, I understand them. After all, this effort was an attempt to please me, was it not, Grimmjow?"

The Arrancar stared at the man on his throne, unsure of how to respond. The attack happened because Grimmjow did not approve of the way Ulquiorra and Yammy handled their scouting mission. All potential enemies should have been destroyed, executed before they could become an nuisance to their plans.

"Yes, Lord Aizen."

When someone suddenly grabbed his jacket's collar, it took every amount of restraint he had not to rip Kaname Tousen's arm off right there, in front of everyone, with his teeth. "What the hell is your problem?"

Tousen turned to the large throne. "Lord Aizen, please allow me to execute this traitor!"

As Aizen glanced to his blind subordinate, Grimmjow suddenly shoved the arm away and took a defensive stance, his body turned to intercept any sudden movements the other shinigami made. "Nice try, Tousen. You've always hated me. That's what this fuss is about. Is this any way for a director-general to act?"

Tousen didn't follow his enraged voice. "I simply believe that anyone who disrupts the peace, the order, of our plans should have to pay for it. It's not personal."

 _What a load of horse shit._ Grimmjow watched as Kusaka and his Arrancar stepped away, probably wisely, as the spiritual pressure seemed to rise in the room from both parties. It was just noticeable enough to be a warning, not a threat, but given enough time, it would escalate. "You would kill me for insubordination?"

"Yes, for the honor of Lord Aizen."

The Arrancar rolled his eyes, chuckling. "Why am I not surprised? All you ever think about is the cause."

"Of course," Tousen said simply. "It guides my actions." A hand was placed on the man's sword, and Grimmjow didn't noticeably flinch. "Something of which you have no knowledge. With no moral foundation behind it, killing is nothing more than murder." The sword slid partially out of the sheath, and Grimmjow watched with bated breath. "However, killing with purpose..."

Suddenly, Tousen's zanpakutou was slicing through the air, moving so quickly it was nothing but a flash. Metal clanged against metal, sparks flying as the sound reverberated throughout the huge room. The Arrancar looked up to see someone he knew very little about, a dark-skinned Arrancar whose mask fragment covered his eyes in the shape of human sunglasses. The Sexta Espada only knew the person by his name and his annoying habit.

"Bloodshed among comrades is never right," the tall man stated, holding his huge broadsword zanpakutou with an almost effortless moment. "Ya gotta get along or we'll never survive the fight. 'Out an order, ya shouldn't kill. Those are Lord Aizen's shoes to fill."

After a few shocked seconds, Tousen finally lowered his zanpakutou, but did not sheathe it. Probably out of principle.

"Kirabi is correct," Aizen stated. "If Grimmjow is to be punished, I will make the order, Kaname."

Begrudgingly, the blind shinigami nodded once. "Yes, Lord Aizen." When the sword was sheathed, Grimmjow breathed deeply, but had a sudden need for revenge. One more person to add to the list, because Ichigo Kurosaki was now on his radar. The scar on his chest proved it.

* * *

The morning light filtered in through the room, birds chirping right outside the window. Pleasant thoughts filled her head, thinking back on her dream involving robots riding on mechanical dinosaurs that breath fire for no apparent reason. A great smile ran across her mind before she could register where she was or what she was doing.

She peeked around the strange room, before remembering where she had seen it before. Weeks ago, she had woken up in this exact room next to Chad, after awakening her powers. The girl sat up carefully, her mind wandering to consider whether or not she had gained new powers. Maybe this time, it would be telekinesis. Or firebreathing, like her dream!

She frantically checked her knuckles to make sure that they didn't feel metallic. No, she wasn't a robot, thankfully. The thought brought a smile to her face, before she realized bandages were wrapped around her forehead, holding a cold washcloth in place. An IV was strapped to her arm, pumping some kind of glowing orange liquid into her bloodstream. It reminded her of the orange-yellow glow of Santen Kesshun.

The fight with the Arrancar flooded back to her mind, the explosive ability known as Cero being redirected by her pyramidal shield, causing a massive explosion. She hadn't had much time to think about the new ability, because she'd been in near constant recovery. On her first day back from school, she suddenly remembered collapsing, blood gushing from her nose.

Orihime lightly checked her nostrils, thankfully blood-free, although it was a little crusty. She laughed almost silently to herself, before realizing she needed to get up to figure out what was going on. Her eyes flickered to the hairpins lying next to the pillow, and she checked them for cracks. Apparently, they were as good as new, perhaps better even.

"Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you're safe!" Shuno yelled excitedly after she summoned the Rikka, the six fairies floating above her head like imaginary friends. Five out of six of them flew down to grasp her head, hugging with their tiny bodies. The feeling made her giggle, but stopped when she saw Tsubaki all by himself.

"We've been worried very much, Hime!" Baigon declared.

"The fat rosette saved you," Hinagiku said, before considering his statement. "Um, is 'rosette' a word?"

The girl smiled, glad to have them talking to her again. "You mean a woman with pink-hair, right?"

Shuno laughed, but a certain amount of mirth was missing, like something was wrong. She was perceptive enough to realize it, but the Rikka tried to turn jovial again. "Well, he was actually a man named Hachi. He healed your physical injuries, and repaired us."

"His powers were a lot like ours," added Lily. "He created a healing field under a barrier that stopped the damage."

She paused. "Damage? What happened to me? Why did my nose bleed?"

"Well, you see," Shuno began, before pausing awkwardly. The Rikka could not continue, and none of the other four seemed apt to speak. Finally Tsubaki flew forward and rolled his eyes.

"None of the others have the balls to say what needs to be said, so I'll do it," he said. "That new ability that you showed, we are calling it Shiten Koushun, was done completely by instinct, and far before you were ready to learn it. Deep within you lies the potential for other powers, and in that moment, you accidentally willed it to happen against someone far beyond your level. By blocking that Cero, you permanently damaged the source of your powers."

She took all of that in, trying to understand it. "Oh, like the hairpins! They were cracked, but Hachi must have fixed them."

Tsubaki shook his head. "No. He could repair them physically, but he could not repair them spiritually." The offensive Rikka took a deep breath. "Imagine it like a slow leak on an impossibly complex broken pipe; in a few days, there won't be any water left within the pipe."

Orihime just stared at him, her expression blank.

Shuno finally stepped in. "What he means to say is that you are... losing us, Orihime." A tear formed in the blonde's eye, and Orihime wished her fingers were small enough to wipe them away. "We don't know exactly how much time you have left with us, but all your spiritual power is slipping away."

"Hachi said it could be a week, it could be two," Tsubaki said. "He said that the leak shouldn't get bigger as long as we only used our original three powers, no matter how much we used them in the meantime. But eventually, it will all end."

She didn't know how to process this. Immediately, she thought of Soul Society. She thought of Karakura Town. She thought of Chad, of Uryu, of Rukia, of Sakura, of Ichigo. It pained her that she might not have the ability to help them one day, to help him one day.

She cried for herself, for her Rikka. She hated the idea of not being able to support her comrades in the fight against Aizen. She hated the idea of one day not being able to even see her shinigami friends. She hated everything about this.

As her tears flowed, even Tsubaki flew down to sit on her shoulder, a hand caressing her cheek. The touching gesture made her laugh, joy escaping for a fleeting moment before sinking under the torrent of sadness.

"At least you'll get to help for a few days," Ayame said in her meek voice. "If there's another Arrancar attack, you can still fight."

"She's right," Shuno said confidently. "You can still protect the others, heal them if they get hurt. You can still do something to stop anyone else from dying like Uryu, for a little while longer."

The small amount of hope flickered to life before her eyes, as a realization hit her. A brunette woman with a double front-braid came to mind. "You're right. And maybe it won't have to happen at all!"

* * *

The cloaked Arrancar stood inside the Caja Negacion, knowing where she was. She had carried out her orders, and the powerful Arrancar stood beside her in the pocket dimension. They had been disguised for seemingly hours, just waiting. Yugito wasn't shocked that Arturo was as silent as a statue, because he'd spent centuries sealed inside that Asauchi blade.

She considered what was on her mind, finally realizing that she needed to ask something that had been bugging her. "So could you see outside your prison?"

The green-haired hollow nodded, a smirk forming on his lips. "Yes, I was aware of the immediate vicinity around me. Couldn't see much of anything until that psychotic researcher pulled the blade from its hiding place. You'd be surprised at how dark total blackness can get after several hundred years."

Yugito raised an eyebrow at that, trying to think through her intelligence about the shinigami. "Mayuri Kurotsuchi?" At the affirmative nod from the natural Arrancar, Yugito considered where she had found the sword. The tunnel connecting Kurotsuchi's personal lab to a cavern underneath the Daireisho Archives. "Seems the captain was up to something if he sought you out."

Plateado laughed. "I suppose so, although I doubt he'd have gotten anything out of me. Couldn't begin to tell you anything about him, other than his quest for power and understanding. Oh, and the fact that a Quincy killed him and his lieutenant almost effortlessly." Arturo laughed again. "Serves him right, if you ask me. I know the feel of those arrows from a mile away."

The Nibi jinchuuriki couldn't believe what she was hearing. A captain and a lieutenant were dead, killed by a Quincy? The Quincy were supposed to be extinct. This seemed like something that Aizen should have told her, or that he would know about it. Apparently not.

"What are we waiting for?" asked Arturo, the question causing a chill to rise in her spine. He had not asked her that yet, despite the already long wait.

"We are waiting for the right time," she explained, earning an eyebrow raise from the other Arrancar. "I assure you that you'll get your chance. Aizen isn't making his move yet, but we are going to hide in this space until he calls on us."

Arturo scowled. "I'm not an impatient man, but can't I kill a few souls? Just to pass the time. I mean, it could be months..."

The female Arrancar shook her head. "No, it won't be. We aren't waiting on the Hogyoku to awaken like everyone else."

Plateado stared at her. "Then what?"

"There's something else we're waiting on." She gave him a bright grin. "At least you'll have pretty company in the meantime." The other Arrancar just laughed.

"You think you're pretty?"

* * *

"Again!"

The early morning light was entirely artificial, a new addition to Urahara's tastes, just added to match his whimsy. She eyed the hot-springs, already looking forward to its soothing effects. She missed them.

"Yes, Sensei," she cried out as she moved in and out of her katas, both from karate and the interesting scrappy-style that the blonde shinigami had been trying to drill into her. A clone of the man stood before her, and she was forced to match him with her inherent taijutsu skills, and nothing else.

She blocked a fist by diverting it with her forearm, twisting her hand out and latching onto the arm. Channeling chakra into her joints and muscles, she dipped down, bringing the arm with her, before spinning a half turn to the right. The Naruto clone was thrown several feet away, and she let a sense of elation hit her; she had finally dispelled him!

But the clone suddenly stuck out his hand, changing his horizontal velocity, and then somersaulted across the ground. Her sensei gave her a displeasing look, and that was all it took for her.

She vaulted forward, moving so fast she nearly leaped from step to step, and attempted to slam a hammer-kick to the clone's head. The chakra-enhanced move collided with the earth, as her opponent jumped to his feet and then aimed a kick of his own.

Tatsuki spun toward him a half turn and pressed outward with a palm-strike, and with her entire presence completely in Naruto's guard for a split-second, there wasn't enough time for him to do anything. The clone was impacted hard enough to go flying for several feet and then dispel in mid-air, and all she could do was widen in surprise.

"I did it!"

The real Naruto stepped forward. "Yeah, you got me. Sort of."

She could only roll her eyes, before adjusting her footwork. "You got another one for me?"

The teacher considered it a moment before shaking his head. "Not taijutsu, at least for now. Have I showed you how to dispel genjutsu?"

The girl nodded. "With good control, you can release them as long as you recognize you are in one. I could probably also prick my finger."

"You probably aren't going to run into any of those," he explained, laughing at the last bit, "considering our current enemies aren't shinobi. But it's important to have the skill just in case."

Tatsuki could only nod, remembering their trip through the Elemental Nations fighting Genisuke's forces. "What about ninjutsu? I mastered another Earth-Style Jutsu recently, but do you have any others?"

After a long moment, Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but we'll go for a demonstration." He held up his hands in a cross-shape, creating three clones with a burst of smoke. One of them was holding one of Urahara's collected scrolls, where they had been drawing most of the ninjutsu and taijutsu she had been learning from.

Tatsuki couldn't help but be surprised. "So you're teaching me this clone jutsu?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. They are going to show the actual jutsu's basics to you, while I have other obligations I need to attend to. I'll be back soon."

Tatsuki watched the three physical copies remain as Naruto exited his body, leaving behind an inhabited gigai, that seemed to look on the situation with distaste.

* * *

Ichigo stared at the crater that had destroyed the park, remembering the feeling of despair running through his heart. He swallowed them down, fingers running along the inside of his pockets. He tried to calm his breathing, but everything was about to change, like the winds blowing through his hair.

Flickers of the hollow within him came to mind, remembering the feeling of it taking over his body against Byakuya, against Yammy. Against Grimmjow. In all three situations, his Bankai, the supposed pinnacle of his powers, wasn't enough. It wasn't until the hollow reiatsu was expelled from his body that he was able to do any substantial damage. He owed his victory to the hollow.

He had to embrace it. He had to find the focus, the control necessary to embrace those abilities that came with the hollow, without allowing the hollow to take over. And no one else could help him do it but Shinji and the Visoreds. If he didn't go to them, he would fail.

"You coming?"

Ichigo twisted only slightly to the familiar voice, revealing the blonde exiled shinigami in a gigai. "Yeah."

Naruto clapped him on the shoulder, and Ichigo tried to relax. He was far too tense. "I probably should have sent a clone in my place and just met you there, but I figured it would be okay if we walked together."

Ichigo stared at him. "A clone?"

When the blonde made some kind of motion with his hands, fingers crossed together, a cloud of smoke erupted to reveal two more identical copies on his left and right. They both saluted before dissipating into another cloud of smoke.

Ichigo brushed the clouded air out of his face and smirked. "Pretty cool, but how does it work? You're in a gigai. Does it replicate more gigais?"

The shinigami stared at him before shrugging, and then starting the trek away from the park and towards the warehouse. "I don't know, really, but probably not. I'd have to ask someone. But I've got several doing several things."

Ichigo nodded, but a comfortable silence fell over them as they walked. The human couldn't quite place what any of Naruto's facial expressions meant, or why he seemed so distracted.

"Look, if you don't want to be here, I can go on my own. You're not a Visored, so I don't need your help." He meant that sincerely, without meaning to upset anyone. It was clear that Naruto didn't want this.

It was a long moment before the other spoke. "I made a deal and I intend to pay my end. So you've got to get control over this, or you'll make me owe someone something." He paused and tried to smile, but his heart wasn't in it. "I hate this."

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Like I said-"

"No, it's not you. Well, not really," the blonde stated, confusing the human. "I just need to see her again, you know? Can you relate to that?"

Ichigo nodded, a little frustrated at the assumption but moved past that. It has to be hard knowing that Hinamori is so close and yet so far, with only a few words of a spell short. He took a moment and nearly stopped, remembering everything he went through before.  _Rukia..._

"If you're going, I'm going."

Naruto peered at him as they rounded the street corner, the warehouse district only a few blocks away. "What?"

"If you're going to rescue Hinamori, then you'll have my sword at your side," the human stated. "I'm gonna help you rescue her, like you helped me rescue Rukia. Just gotta figure out this Visored stuff first, because I won't be much help to you otherwise."

* * *

Tatsuki breathed as deeply as she could, her chakra running haphazardly in her system. The ring nearly burned on her finger from the effort, and she forced herself to calm down and allow her body to rest. The three clones were gone, dispelling themselves as soon as it was clear that she understood the process.

She turned briefly, glad that Renji had agreed to help Chad even after everything was said and done. The two clashed, warming up with Renji's shikai colliding against Chad's shield-like arm. The endgame was to use Renji's bankai next, but she was itching to try against it. As she was now, she wouldn't stand a chance without going too far with the ring.

"You're doing well," Tessai said, watching from near the entrance to the shop. "I know you're worried about catching up to everyone else, but you'll get there."

"Thank you. You got any more of that tea?"

The man smiled as he lead her upstairs, and she turned briefly to watch. Renji's whip-like sword was difficult to manage, but Chad seemed particularly agile; the movements he made were almost too quick to see, green light bursting around every footstep. She knew she wanted to fight them both to test her strength, but that could wait.

As soon as she climbed the steps, Tatsuki's eyes met Rukia talking animatedly to Urahara, who seemed to be calmly sipping from his bowl of ramen. "...is Ichigo! He's missing and you're doing nothing to find him!?"

"Ichigo's missing?" asked Tatsuki, before her eyes widened. "Was he taken by the Arrancars!?"

Kisuke finally put down the empty bowl, while Tessai tried to keep a calming look on his face to sort the situation out. "No, if he had, we would have sensed their reiatsu, or the Garganta being opened."

"So where is he?" Rukia demanded.

"He's probably training." The shopkeeper looked toward her pointedly. "You know why."

Tatsuki furrowed her brow; she hated being left out of the loop, but if the man knew where he was, she was okay with that.

"Fine."

"Oh, Tatsuki, Rukia, she's awake," Tessai explained, immediately earning a wide-eyed look from both of the girls.

Tatsuki bounded down the hallway, Rukia following closely behind. Orihime was in her room, bandages still wrapped around her head. The Shun Shun Rikka spun around her, but when she turned to look at them, they returned to the hairpins lying on the bedside table. "Tatsuki! Rukia!" the girl shouted, trying to get up.

"No," the shinigami admonished, forcing her to stay seated on the makeshift bed. "You need to rest."

The girl embraced both of them, and Tatsuki was elated to finally have her conscious again. "I've been so worried about you! Don't ever make me do that again!"

Orihime laughed nervously. "I'll try not to. Has anything else happened while I was unconscious?"

Tatsuki and Rukia took turns explaining the situation to her, much to Orihime's horror. She seemed glad that Tatsuki had managed to defeat an enemy, but that was nothing compared to the despair she felt about her powers.

"I missed so much..." The girl looked so downcast, Tatsuki was afraid she was going to cry. She placed a comforting hand on the girl's back. "I don't know how much help I would have been if I had been able to fight, but now I don't even know what to do. I'm losing my powers now!"

Tatsuki frowned, eyeing the ring on her hand. She didn't want to face that outcome for herself, so she was sure that Orihime wouldn't want it either. Now that she was in this world and knew the stakes of the fight going on, she would use this power to make a difference. Orihime was losing that ability, and it hurt.

But the girl glanced up at Rukia like she was just remembering something. "Captain Unohana is in Squad Four, the medical division, right?"

Rukia nodded. "Where are you going with this?"

"Well, I was thinking that if anyone can help me heal from whatever damage was done to my powers, it's her."

The shinigami stared for a moment, but Tatsuki suddenly felt hope again. "It's possible, isn't it? Can you contact her?"

"I can contact her, but Squad Four is normally forbidden from leaving the Soul Society, especially its captain." Orihime remembered Sakura's explanation about that, but it seemed like so long ago now. "If she is to try to heal you, then you'll have to go to her."

* * *

"You know, this clone thing is really odd. You look like him, you think like him, but you aren't actually him. I'd have given just about anything to see the look on the Head Captain's face if you dispelled in front of him."

The clone of Naruto laughed. "Yeah, that wouldn't have gone over so well. I'm surprised he didn't find some way to blast me through the transmission screen for even trying to talk to him."

Toshiro knew the clone had a point, but he shook his head as they passed out of Orihime's bedroom, nearly running into the latest shopping bags filled with useless clothing that Rangiku had bought while in her gigai. "The Head Captain understands that this is a time of conflict, and you're as valuable an asset as anyone with a Bankai. Er, the real you."

The clone laughed. "Glad to hear it, I guess. What do you think about all this?"

Toshiro considered the details, trying to decipher them. The Soul King's murder was the goal, and Karakura Town was the target. Aizen had his eyes set on the lynchpin of the Soul Society, the king of the Seireitei. And he would sacrifice thousands of innocent souls to do it.

"He's a vile, disgusting man." Hitsugaya scowled at the thought of him. "We'll stop him. I know we will."

The two didn't say anything for nearly half a minute before the clone finally looked up. "So... are we going to discuss the elephant in the room?"

Toshiro paused and closed his eyes, wishing he did not have to deal with this. Especially talking with a falsehood like this clone.

"When are you going to submit your report that that was Sojiro Kusaka? You said you thought he was an Arrancar with ice-powers, but you and I both know that isn't true. Matsumoto will keep the secret for you, as will the real me. But you need to own up sometime."

The boyish captain closed his eyes, trying to shut out the discussion. "I know. I need time to actually think about what this means."

"What it means," the clone interrupted, "is that one of your friends from the Academy all those years ago is alive again. We don't know how or why, but it happened. Aizen is using him and your guilt against you."

Toshiro twisted to look at him, a prepared scowl on his face, but something occurred to him. "He does have Kyoka Suigetsu's ability on his side. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes so much more sense." The idea was so brilliant that Toshiro latched onto it, his anger at Aizen rising by the minute. "That bastard won't get into my head."

Naruto's replica stared at him while thinking. "Well, it sounds possible. But could he really fake Hyourinmaru to the degree that Kusaka supposedly used it?"

The captain paced back and forth in front of the sliding door, trying to understand it. "It's... possible, and if anyone is smart enough to pull it off, it's Sosuke Aizen." One train of thought faded into the next. "But he seemed to know me, to know the personal details of what happened, his personality... There's no way Aizen would know all that just from reading reports that he probably stole from the archives."

The captain and the clone faded into a ready silence, as they considered their options. Before he could say anything else, the duplicate frowned. "I'm about to run out of chakra. Sorry." Immediately, the clone burst into smoke, leaving behind a thoughtful shinigami.

* * *

The relay of memories erupted through Naruto's mind, telling him all about the shinigami discovering what Urahara knew a few days ago, and the conversation with Toshiro. Earlier, he got an update about Tatsuki's training, and she knew all the basics to perform the jutsu he had her learning now. He was still waiting on the trio of clones he had working on the Kido spell, but he supposed they too would run out of chakra soon.

Even so, he pressed his mind back to the present, surrounded by the Visored in their home turf. The warehouse did not appear to be very "lived in" so he suspected they moved around every few months; why they would live in this rundown warehouse for any period of time was questionable enough. It's possible they didn't even always live in Karakura Town; Naruto wondered if they traveled around the world, following the juureichi that could be used to create a Ouken. That might explain their eclectic clothing styles, all mismatched and definitely out of place. They definitely knew more than they let on.

"Thanks for bringing him here, Uzumaki." The blonde one with the crooked smile said from his perch, staring down at the two of them.

"Yeah, I held up my end," he shouted back, looking at both Hachi and Lisa, who seemed to look back at him. "But why are you all posturing mysteriously like this? You kind of look stupid."

The blonde girl who looked no older than Toshiro suddenly jumped down, anger on her face. "Stupid!? I'll show you 'stupid'!"

Naruto nearly didn't hold his ground until the one he suspected was Shinji Hirako jumped in, holding her back. "Come on, Hiyori, he did us a favor. I don't know why you wanted us to pose like that anyway, Rose."

The long-haired Visored with a hooked nose and a fancy suit scoffed. "Making a good impression is always a good idea."

Ichigo was clearly lost in what was going on, but the expression on his face definitely said to cut the crap.

"Whatever, none of this matters," Shinji said as he finally let go of the little girl who could only be Hiyori. "I guess this means that you've finally decided that you're ready to come over to our side. Am I right?"

Ichigo only smirked. "Bite me." Shinji gasped animatedly, and Naruto rolled his eyes; it really didn't make much sense for Shinji to assume that Ichigo would ever make any pledge of allegiance. He was a loose cannon who operated on the side of whatever it took to stop Aizen and protect Karakura Town. Nowadays, Naruto wondered if he fell into the same category.

"I have no intention of joining up with you people. I'm not that desperate, so don't kid yourself." Ichigo stared up at the hollowfied shinigami. "I'm here to use you, Shinji."

The blonde man raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Is that so?"

"I came here with one purpose in mind. Everyone keeps saying that you are the only people who can teach me to control the hollow inside me. I'm not leaving here until you do, and once that's done, I'm out of here." The human looked to Naruto. "There's a girl's life on the line, and I need to be in top condition to help him get her back."

Naruto beamed. Ichigo had so much optimistic arrogance that it was easy to believe that they would succeed. His attitude was contagious, and if he didn't already know he would save Momo, Ichigo's assured self-confidence made him believe it one hundred ten percent.


End file.
